About the Kid Goat Who Could Count to Ten

The main character of the tale by the famous Norwegian poet, writer, and composer Alf Prøysen is a kid goat who learned to count to ten. He is eager to apply his knowledge in practice, so during a walk, he assigns ordinal numbers to everyone he meets along the way: “One is me, two is the Calf, three is the Cow. One, two, three!” The characters counted by the Kid Goat, due to their ignorance, feel offended and want to punish the Kid Goat for his presumption at all costs. The number of disgruntled characters grows with each page of the book. They all run after the Kid Goat, intending to beat him (or reason with him) so that it won’t be proper to encroach upon the personal freedom of citizens again.

The Kid Goat swiftly runs away from his pursuers, confident in his rightness and his right to count everyone he encounters. The chasing crowd of animals every time stops to explain to a new character how deeply they have been offended, insulted, and humiliated. Eventually, the Kid Goat climbs onto a sailboat docked at the pier. Everyone rushes after him. The boat sways, everyone panics; it seems that in another minute, they will all sink. At this moment, the captain announces that the boat is designed for ten people and someone must urgently recount the passengers.

Now is the Kid Goat's shining hour! He counts everyone again. As soon as it is determined that there are exactly ten of them, the swaying magically stops, and the boat ceases to sink. Everyone feels sincere gratitude towards the Kid Goat. On the last page – the expected happy ending. The talent of the Kid Goat finds a worthy application: he becomes a controller – counting the passengers boarding the little boat.

The illustrations by the brilliant artist Vladimir Suteev for the book are beyond praise! Recommended for reading by adults to preschool children, for jointly viewing the excellent pictures and helping little ones learn basic counting.