An Egg is Quiet

By Dianna Aston

Illustrated by Sylvia Long

Most enjoyed by Preschoolers through 2rd grade

Our kindergartners and sixth graders are sharing a science unit about baby chicks. While the sixth graders tend the eggs in their classroom, the kindergartners get to stop in occasionally and see how the eggs are coming along. Excitement builds until the day the chicks hatch, fluff up and are ready to be held. It's a highlight of the school year for both grades.

The kindergartners and I shared 'An Egg is Quiet' during story time the other day. An egg is quiet but it's a lot more than just quiet. Eggs come is all shapes and sizes, colors and textures. Different creatures lay their eggs in different places but the eggs themselves are designed to help their survival. Eggs stay quiet only so long until their residents hatch and announce their arrival to the world.

Lots of facts about eggs are included here. The first two-page spread shows bird eggs, each labeled with the name of its species. The last two-page spread in the back of the book shows the birds and animals that created the eggs so that readers can match the bird or animal with it's colorful egg.

The illustrations are what make this book so spectacular. Illustrator Sylvia Long has depicted the wide variety of eggs in such beautiful colors and with such incredible detail. The illustration showing an egg hidden among rocks is so effective at getting across the idea that eggs are often camouflaged to look like their surroundings. The eggs stand out on the pages in their beauty because of all the white space used as background. This is truly a beautiful book.

Grab this book when you find a bird's nest in the back yard and you want to identify the creator of the eggs inside. See if you can find it in 'An Egg is Quiet' before the egg gets noisy!