We first discovered Emily Gravett’s “Monkey and Me,” a couple of months ago and fell in love with her style. I’m almost positive that if we owned a copy of it Zadie would want to read nothing else. So we just read it at the library–several times on each trip–and in between trips we talk about looking for it at the library and reading it again. Given the level of obsession that has surrounded “Monkey and Me” at our house, I hesitated a bit before checking out “The Odd Egg” this morning. It’s only been 12 hours, but I think “Monkey and Me” might have some competition.
“The Odd Egg” is about a duck who finds a big, spotted egg. He adores it, but all of his friends make fun of it. While all of the other birds’ eggs hatch, he sits patiently on his egg knitting scarves and booties. When the egg finally hatches it is <spoiler alert> an alligator*! The alligator then follows the duck home wearing the scarf and booties and saying “Mama.” It’s kind of improbable given the dietary preferences of alligators, but it’s incredible cute to see an alligator wearing webbed ducky booties.
As with Gravett’s other books that we’ve read, it’s the pictures that pull you in rather than the text. “The Odd Egg” looks like a sketchbook with layers and layers of pencil and watercolor. The birds’ words are written by hand in pencil, which I love. The animals look comfortable and friendly and a little harried. One of the loveliest features is a set of mini-pages (ala “The Very Hungry Caterpillar”) that flip to reveal a series of eggs hatching.
*I thought it was a crocodile at first, but turns out it’s an alligator. And I finally looked up some information about telling the difference between the two.
“Balloons, Balloons, Balloons” tells the story of a town of bunnies that mysteriously becomes blanketed in balloons. At first, the balloons are greeted with delight. But as the balloons filter into the streets, pools, and office buildings, we see shopkeepers and streetsweepers frowning as they try to maintain order. Meanwhile children continue to play happily with the balloons on the bus, in the pool, and at school. The various reactions the bunnies have make you think about how you define having too much of a good thing.
Right around the time that Zadie started to take an interest in reading–rather than eating–books, I read a 
The text on each page is short, which makes it perfect for little ones who are moving beyond board books but are sometimes overly eager to turn the page. And I love love love the illustrations, which are watercolor and ink but almost look like woodcuts. After just a reading or two, little Z had picked up on each animal’s emotions–a testament to Henkes’ ability to portray both sadness and joy. I was sad to take this one back to the library this afternoon, but am quite excited that we’re getting Z “Kitten’s First Full Moon” for Christmas.