hlbirk's Full Review: Leo Lionni - An Extraordinary Egg
I'm laughing as I begin this review because of a comment my 5 year old son made when we were reading this book. The book is titled An Extraordinary Egg and is written by Leo Lionni. My son checked it out from the school library and it's in hardcover/tradecloth form. Now, I don't know exactly what they teach kindergarteners these days but the first thing out of his mouth was, "Mom, it's not a very good book because there's no trophy on it." LOL! I didn't understand what he meant until he turned it over to look at the back...he points and says, "See, no trophy."
Well, most of the books we read are Caldecott Award winners but never in a million years did I ever figure my 5 year old would care one way or the other. I told him it was ok, we are going to read it anyway.
The cover looks exactly the same as Epinions has shown above. Done mostly in watercolor the illustrations are truly very impressive. The colors range from greens and yellows to a very beautiful red on the flowers. There is a "sponge-paint" type effect on the stones that really brings them to life.
The story is about three frogs that live on Pebble Island: Marilyn, August and one who was always somewhere else. Her name is Jessica and she likes to wander around on her own. One day she happens upon an extraordinary "pebble" and she takes it back to her friends. They were never impressed with what Jessica had to show them but this time they were quite surprised. The stone was perfect, white like the snow and round like a full moon. Marilyn and August inform Jessica that it's not a stone, but an egg. Of course they know everything (wink, wink)! "It's an egg. A chicken egg."
Jessica had never even heard of a chicken but she went along with the conclusion anyway. Naturally, a few days later the egg begins to hatch and out crawls a long, scaly creature that walked on four legs. Marilyn is just so excited and claims, "I was right! It is a chicken!"
This new chicken friend shows the three frogs how good of a swimmer it is and even shows them new ways to float and paddle. The four had a wonderful time together and played for many days. The chicken even saves Jessica from some weeds she gets tangled in. The two become very good friends and were pretty much inseparable.
Then, one day a red and blue bird (guess Leo couldn't decide which kind he liked...LOL!) comes along and tells the chicken that it's mother has been looking all over for him. Jessica and the chicken follow the little bird for a very long time and finally come upon the most extraordinary creature they'd ever seen.
I won't spoil the rest of the story, although you can probably figure most of it out on your own. This book is a definite joy to read! A simple case of mistaken identity has joined two friends for life. My son enjoyed reading this book, although he doesn't really know how to "read". They learn "camera words" in school (the simple words like: the, was, are, you...) and he could easily pick those out of this story. The most difficult word was obviously extraordinary, but I wouldn't expect my kindergartner to know that.
This book would make a great story for the intermediate level reader or a read-aloud book for daycare or classroom circle reading time.
An Extraordinary Egg is published by Dragonfly Books and the ISBN is 0-679-85840-7. It's 32 pages long and the first Dragonfly edition was printed in November 1998. Go check it out at your local library!!!
Now in Dragonfly comes the tale of three colorful frogs. One finds a pebble. Another declares it a chicken egg. But what happens when a baby alligator...More at HotBookSale
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