Whose Egg?

April 22, 2013
Flaps reveal the hatchlings from eggs of many colors and sizes when lifted, including a penguin, a turtle, and a snake. Troughton’s naturalistic watercolors offer visual hints about the animals’ identities (in one scene, a parent platypus’s fur and webbed foot can be glimpsed near its small, white egg, before it opens). Evans provides additional clues: “My egg is creamy white. It sticks to this wide green leaf. I will wriggle and crawl when I hatch, but one day I will fly in the sky. Who am I?” On the right-hand page, the words, “Whose egg?” appear, and lifting the two flaps mimics the eggs cracking open (in this case, the egg belongs to a butterfly). A smart design, lush illustrations, and an intriguing guessing game should engage early readers. Ages 3–up.

November 1, 2013

PreS-Gr 1-Designed for fun, the book's visual and verbal clues will have readers guessing the animal described and hidden inside each egg. Behind the eight double flaps are a penguin, an emu, a butterfly, an alligator, a snake, a turtle, a plover, and a platypus. Troughton's artwork is colorful and engaging on each spread. However, the text's clues and answers are broad with no scientific detail appended. The illustrations, in most cases, are more specific but the butterfly spread overlooks the pupa stage. The turtle is shown as a sea turtle with the inaccurate description, "I will sunbathe on the sandy shores." The clues for the penguin are also potentially confusing: "I will hatch with fuzzy feathers, but one day I'll wear a bathing suit." The softly realistic illustrations provide enough information and could stand on their own, but better introductions to the natural world abound.-Carol S. Surges, formerly at Longfellow Middle School, Wauwatosa, WI

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