The Odd Egg

An odd duck finds an odd egg in Gravetts ("Meerkat Mail") economically told story. Envious of a quintet of various mother birds snuggling with their eggs, a male duck wants an ovoid bundle, too. From an undisclosed locale, he adopts a gigantic egg whose green spots match his head feathers. The other birds cackle with amusement; the bookish owl consults an Egg Spotters Guide and looks askance at Ducks treasure. Gravett arranges the six eggs across a spread in ascending-size order. When each creak cracks, layered, before-and-after specially cut flaplike pages reveal each successive baby greeting its mother with a tweet or a honk. Ultimately only Ducks mystery egg remains. Using visual suspense and few words, Gravett depicts an alligator bursting from the shell, snapping its jaws and scattering the naysayers. There is mild ambiguitynot everyone is shown getting out of its way and feathers do flyyet the gator seems amiable. A parting view shows it waddling after skinny Duck, saying Mama, wearing a scarf Duck has knitted and booties that resemble a ducks webbed feet. A witty salute to both nature and nurture. Ages 48. "(Jan.)" Copyright 2008 Publishers Weekly Used with permission.

PreS-KThis is the story of a drake who is feeling left out. "All the birds had laid an egg. All except for Duck." When he finds a huge, green-spotted egg, he loves it right away. Sitting high atop itso high that he barely fits into the picturehe is subjected to the taunts of the egg layers: "Not pretty." "It'll never hatch!" "Ha ha!" Gravett uses narrow pages that gradually increase in size to reveal all of the other eggs hatching, from the smallest chick to the tallest flamingo. While the moms cuddle their new hatchlings, Duck waitsand waits. Leaning against the large egg, he knits up a storm until "Creak Crack, SNAP": out pops an enormous alligator, scaring all of the scoffing birds right off the page. The final, priceless illustration shows an adoring alligator marchingin four knitted slippers and a mufflerbehind Duck, murmuring, "Mama." There are many aspects of the story that make it worth adding to the what-have-I-hatched collection. First, it's so simple that toddlers can enjoy it. Second, the layout is unique and well suited to the plot. Third, the illustrations are a joy to behold: funny, personable, and oh-so-eye-catching. The ecru background on every page is a nice touch, lending the book a little extra cachet. Kids will love cracking the pages of this exceptional story."Susan Weitz, formerly at Spencer-Van Etten School District, Spencer, NY" Copyright 2009 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.