Best Counting Book Ever

Richard Scarry's 1975 classic — continuously in print for good reason — follows Willy Bunny as he counts all the way to one hundred, finding numbers everywhere in the busy, detail-packed world of Busytown. That's the book's real distinction: going well past the 1-to-10 ceiling of most counting board books, making it genuinely useful for preschoolers ready for bigger numbers. Scarry's signature illustrations reward repeated reading; kids find something new on every page. The honest caveat is that the 2025 listing almost certainly marks a new printing of the original, not a revised edition, so longtime Scarry readers have likely seen it before — and some gender role depictions from the 1970s will feel dated to modern parents. As a counting primer for ages three to seven, though, it remains one of the best available.