A LIST OF "HIDDEN NUMBERS AND RHYMES"
Cover the numerals on the cover give the value of pi.
Old Man One spread Old Man One has one hat. If you look at the pattern on the boy's quilt, you will see repeated images suns and drums. (The drum is part of an image of someone marching and hitting a drum.) They are the rhymes with "thumb."
Old Man Two page Old Man Two has two wheels on his scooter. There are also two screws on the electric socket plate on the wall and two spaces showing for the plug. The rhymes with two are bamboo, which is the pattern on the wallpaper (though it will look like bones to some a deliberate ploy), and also screw (in the socket-plate). Also, the sky is blue, another rhyme. Paul gave this old man a POO -dle. Also, outside the window there is a roof with a flue, and on the boy's shoe the insignia is the lowercase Greek letter mu (µ).
Old Man Three page Old Man Three has three buttons on his sweater. Tree and key are the rhymes, as well as flea (there is one on the dog three would have been too itchy).
Old Man Four spread Old Man Four only has four fingers (and four toes, as you can see later, when he rolls down hill). Dinosaur (on floor), apple core, and drawer are the rhymes.
Old Man Five page Old Man Five has five bees on him and five laces on his shoes. At work on the hill in the distance is a man with a scythe. The motion of the Old Man Five is a kind of jive. Under the table on the ground are patches of chives.
Old Man Six page There are six chicks (across the spread). There are six tiny bones in Old Man Six's miner's cart. Chicks and bricks (lining the miner's tunnel) are the rhymes.
Old Man Seven page There are seven bees flying around the hive. There are seven spokes in the wheel on the wheelchair. There are seven spots on the ladybug's back. Look at the heart carved on the tree for the rhymes Devin, Kevin, eleven.
Old Man Eight page There are eight geese in the sky and eight medals on Old Man Eight's chest. The rhymes are skate and crate.
Old Man Nine spread There are nine colored stripes on the caterpillar, which also has nine feet. There are also nine dots on the pretzel bag in the backpack. The rhymes are vine, and in the backpack: Clementine (title and several lines of music) and twine. The citrus fruit happens to be a clementine, as well.
Old Man Ten spread There are ten buttons on Old Man Ten's white vest. Rhymes are wren and Gwen, Sven, 2010 (see side of barn), and, of course, men.
Grand Finale The border of the rug has numerals in eight different numeration systems, though they are not all equally visible in the assembled book. On the inside of the zigzag line starting on the bottom side of the rug and progressing in a counterclockwise direction, they are: Roman, Ethiopian, Arabic, and Mayan. On the outside of the zigzag they are: Sinhalese (from Sri Lanka), Chinese, Hebrew, and Babylonian. The symbols in the tiles on the fireplace are Archaic Phoenician representing the numbers 1-10 and then 20, 30, etc., up to 70. The Ethiopian, Arabic, Hebrew, and Phoenician systems all use the alphabet for numeration: a=1, b=2, the letter following 10 represents 20, and so on.
