1, 2, 3 Salish Sea: a Pacific Northwest Counting Book by Nikki McClure is set in and around the Salish Sea. It's a body of water that straddles the US and Canadian border at Washington and British Columbia. It includes the Strait of Georgia, the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Puget Sound as well as smaller water ways. While the author lives in Washington, I know the area from the Canadian side.

http://pussreboots.com/blog/2021/comments_09/123_salish_sea.html ( )

This lovely counting book focuses on the marine life in and around the Pacific Northwest. The artwork has a woodcut look that has a lovely weight and flow to it. There are strong black forms with pale salmon pink and slat blue tints. Artistically, this is a lovely, lovely book. The numbers go 1-10, then 20, 50, 100, 1000, 10 000, 1 000 000, giving a sense of exponential scale to little readers.

What a wonderful concept, counting sea creatures and natural life from the rainy Pacific coast. A child will not only learn about counting, but will get an idea of life in a unique geographic area. The caption accompanying the numbers is sure to become an entertaining tongue-twisting game of salmon swimming home, kelp crabs lunching in a forest, and clams for an octopus's feast. The sense of quantity is demonstrated through escalating numbers soaring to "one million raindrops returning to the Salish Sea".

The cover, showing two orcas swimming in a calm sea, is striking but some of the illustrations inside are indistinct, although it should be remembered that in real life a close look at a sea creature in a tide pool can be indistinct too.

Named for the first inhabitants of the region, the Coast Salish people, the Salish Sea is an inland sea that encompasses Puget Sound, the San Juan Islands and the waters off of Vancouver, BC. The area spans from Olympia, Washington in the south to the Campbell River, British Columbia in the north, and includes the large cities of Seattle and Vancouver. It has 419 islands. - The SeaDoc Society

Addendum: I shared this book with two young friends aged 4 and 6. Although both children can count and own a lot of books, this was a huge hit and both declared it to be their favourite book ever! As a result I'm increasing the rating from 4.5 to 5 stars. ( )