“The Odd Egg,” by Emily Gravett

admin — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 21:38:47 +0000

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 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.

“A Good Day,” by Kevin Henkes

admin — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 07:03:16 +0000

Right around the time that Zadie started to take an interest in reading–rather than eating–books, I read a glowing review of Keven Henkes’ “Old Bear,” about a hibernating bear who dreams about the cycle of the seasons. I had to hold myself back from buying it immediately, knowing that our 8-month old would shred the “creamy paper” with its “rhythmical and cadenced” words with the same exuberance she brought to the Sunday paper. But Henkes stayed on my radar and here we are almost exactly a year later, happily able to dive into his books.

Our local library doesn’t seem to have a copy of “Old Bear,” so our first Henkes book was “A Good Day.” The book starts off with four animals having a bad day: a bird who has lost his favorite tail feather, a squirrel who dropped her nut, a dog tangled in her leash, and a fox who can’t find his mother. Then the day turns around and each of the animals finds happiness. Just as in real (even grown-up) life, each animal handles his situation differently. The bird changes his perspective and ends up flying higher than ever before while the puppy works herself free so that she can run again. In a gentle way, the book encourages us not to dwell on things that disappoint and to work through difficult situations.

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.

reading with zadie » watercolor

“The Odd Egg,” by Emily Gravett

“A Good Day,” by Kevin Henkes