Grab your wheelbarrows…123 with Percy the Park Keeper joins Living Paintings library

We’re delighted to announce our latest title, the next adventure for our beloved Percy: 123 with Percy the Park Keeper by Nick Butterworth. This fun book features plenty of tactile images, an engaging audio guide, and is the perfect aid to help blind children get to grips with numbers.

What is the book about?

Learning to count is an integral part of a child’s life and it can certainly be a challenge. But it’s much easier when you have someone to help. Luckily, Percy and all his animal friends are here to help your child learn numbers from one to ten! Each page is packed with beautiful illustrations, introducing toddlers to the natural world as they go along.

For children who are blind and visually impaired, not being able to see the images makes learning even more challenging. That’s where we come in. Our tactile-audio adaptation of 123 with Percy the Park Keeper is perfect for little learners getting to grips with numbers.

What goes into a Living Paintings book?

We begin every Living Paintings book with line drawings, based on the key original characters and scenes in the book’s illustrations. These line drawings then get sent to our master carvers, who produce detailed 3D carved versions. Once we have these carvings – our “master artworks,” as we call them – they’re placed into a machine that heats plastic over them to form the tactile image. Finally, these tactile images are lovingly hand painted by our incredible in-house team of volunteer painters, who bring that splash of colour to all the tactile images inside our Touch to See books.

For this title, there are four tactile pages: one of Percy, beside his trusty wheelbarrow, and three counting pages for the numbers one to ten, chock-full of colourful illustrations!

Another part of what makes Living Paintings so special is our signature audio description guides. These describe every part of the raised and flat illustrations, giving children a deeper understanding and enjoyment of the story. Alongside the clear braille pages, our audio tactile books give children with visual impairments the greatest chance of learning, engaging and most importantly loving stories.

For this title, we had the pleasure of working with actor Daniel Mays. Known for a wide range of characters, Daniel did a wonderful job of recording the descriptions.  His playful words will have young readers learning and laughing at the same time.

Thank you, Daniel, for your wonderful support.

How to order

Gather up your animal friends and grab your wheelbarrows… 123 with Percy the Park Keeper is available to order now from our free postal library.

• Order now!