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20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
These are the yolks, folks, October 20, 2006
This review is from: An Egg Is Quiet (Hardcover)
You know how it is. A wave of newly published children's books hits bookstore shelves nationwide and somehow you miss some of the lovelier offerings in the mix. Basically, by the time you've gotten your bearings and have waded through most of what's out there, a fresh and entirely NEW crop of books fill the shelves and you're left wondering what might have eluded your grasp. What did I personally miss? I missed "An Egg Is Quiet", and I am thoroughly ashamed of the fact. Now I have come to right a great wrong and heap healthy scads of praise on this most deserving book. Beautiful and informative all at once, it brings scientific information to the kiddies in a form that both they and their very happy parents will appreciate.
Before we get to the words in this book, let's just open the cover. Ahhhh. See that? I'm talking about the endpapers. They're blue and artfully speckled. Okay, let's move on. Turn another page and now what do you see? Two pages of eggs suspended against a white background. Now we enter into the book and we learn all sorts of things about these yolky wonders. We see a massive variety in shell colors, from the magenta-tinged black-capped mockingthrush to the deep sea-blue green of the glossy ibis. We see how eggs can be different shapes, sizes, and have variegated patterns. They're even textured differently, and in the book we see the gooey, rubbery, hard, smooth, and rough eggs of the world. Old dinosaur eggs and the development of embryos lead up to the final discovery. Yes, an egg may be quiet. But just wait until it hatches and then just listen to the noise. The final two pages before the endpapers show all kinds of insects, birds, and other egg-hatching creatures taking a kind of final bow.
What I respect about Dianna Aston is that she doesn't limit her scope. It would have been the most logical thing in the world to focus this book on bird eggs and go no further. Instead, she's not afraid of being inclusive. The section on the shapes of eggs even shows a perfectly round sea turtle egg, next to an oval ladybird beetle, next to a pointy common murre, next to a truly disturbing can't-get-it-out-of-my-brain-no-matter-how-hard-I-try dogfish egg of the tubular persuasion. Variety is the name of the game here and Aston has the situation truly well in hand. She was only half the team, though. Just as much credit, then, must be handed over to illustrator Sylvia Long.
First of all, paint me baffled when I discovered that the only materials that went into the creation of "An Egg Is Quiet" were listed merely as "ink and watercolor". Now, I have seen watercolors in my days. They are sloppy and messy and they don't leave much room for the kind of elegant white space you find in this book. Yet on closer inspection there was no denying it. Long has mastered the art of the tiny watercolor detail. Whether she's tracing the green sinews of the passion vine butterfly's home or embedding the tiniest of speckles on the egg of a southern cassowary, the meticulousness you find in this book only adds to its appeal. There is a realism to these images that never becomes so scientific as to render them dull (if that makes any sense). Best of all are the tiny labels found on each and every page that describe what it is we are seeing and that have delicious names like sooty tern, paradise riflebird, and hepatic tanager. There are even notes that for the sake of accuracy will make it clear when, "all eggs on this page larger than actual size."
Something you may have missed when you gave this book a quick once over: Remember when you opened the book and saw the two pages of eggs? Now remember when you were at the end of the book and you saw the two pages of birds, insects, and sea critters? Well don't look now, but a lot of those eggs and hatchlings match up. Not all and not perfectly (unless someone can locate for me the hatched katydid) but enough that any kid who loves a little "I Spy" will be flipping back and forth and forth and back like there's no tomorrow.
The trend in children's publishing right now can be summed up in a single word: Foil. Shiny shiny foil. Whether they're reprinting "The Cat and the Hat" to make it glitter or they're pushing the insidious "Rainbow Fish" on innocent children, foil is the new black. What everyone should be doing, though, is taking a page out of Chronicle Books' ... uh ... book. "An Egg Is Quiet" has foil on its cover, but it's supremely subtle. The cursive letters of the title have a blue sheen with just a hint of green with the light hits them correctly. Maybe it's silly to compliment a book on what it hasn't done rather than what it has, but when it comes to attracting the eye of glitter-happy tots, this is undoubtedly the most sublime use of sparkles I've ever seen.
Oh, it's a joy. A factual informative delight. Kids will pore over it for hours and, once in bed, their parents will soon be doing the same. If you know a kid with a scientific bent, or at the very least a healthy interest in the natural world, consider this the perfect gift. A divine alignment of text and image.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
wonderful natural history reference book for pre-K - early elementary, March 8, 2006
This review is from: An Egg Is Quiet (Hardcover)
This is an absolutely gorgeous book with a variety of interesting drawings to look at and talk about with your young child. The drawings of various eggs found in nature are beautifully detailed and there is plenty of information about different egg designs and the habits of a variety of egg-laying species. Children are naturally fascinated by nature and this is the kind of book that piques their interest. My three-year old enjoys it and has been inspired by it to learn more and to (gently) seek eggs in their natural settings.
Nice Easter or spring gift!
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Egg and I, February 20, 2007
This review is from: An Egg Is Quiet (Hardcover)
As of today, this is the best kids' book I've read in 2007. Although the extraordinary (egg-straordinary?) egg illustrations are the main attraction, the text is noteworthy as well. One can picture a kindergarten teacher softly reading the first few lines--the kids settling down, all big-eyed, looking at the large black spotted egg the accompanies the haiku-like opening:
"An egg is quiet
It sits there, under its mother's feathers...
On top of its father's feet
...Warm. Cozy."
"An Egg is Quiet" displays and describes eggs with unusual colors and shapes, often in two, even three "layers" of text. For example, heading one of the two-page spreads is the title," An egg is shapely." Beneath that are four "subtitles" describing egg shapes: Round, oval, pointy, and tubular." Finally, and in a smaller font, the author describes each of the four egg shape exemplars, usually with some revealing fact. The blue and brown eggs of the common mure, for example, are "pointy at the end, so if they're laid on rock ledges, they roll around in safe little circles, not off the cliff." The format of the text enables you to--quite literally--choose your reading level!
Other spreads in this amply sized books show eggciting (sorry) variations in color, size, and design; there's also a look at embryonic development of three kinds of animals. This maturation theme is revisited in the last few pages: When the animal is born, the egg changes from quiet to "noisy!" We also see a variety of adult animals, echoing the egg collection that opens the book. (It would have been better, however, to draw these adults in the same relative location as their corresponding eggs.)
All this, and I haven't even mentioned the glorious ink and watercolor illustrations. They are simply spectacular; the egg never looked so appetizing. Sylvia Long's luscious egg drawings evoke shiny agates, marbles, unusual crayon colors, snowcones, mixed pools of watercolor, stones under water, and jelly beans. Some are mottled (e.g., the Big Herring Gull egg), while others have one bright color (the Great Blue Heron). The shapes vary much more than one might imagine, from the very round (Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtle) to tubular with strange string coming out of them (the egg of the Dogfish Shark, with built-in tendrils that attach the egg to seaweed.
This is a real keeper--a work that will stay bookcased long after childhood. It's sure to elicit lots of oooo's and ahhhhh's! Kids may find themselves drawn to one particular egg, and they can talk about their favorites with others. At school, the book will complement science, art, math, and social curricula. Illustrator Sylvia Long (www.sylvia-long.com), and writer Dianna Aston have produced a book suitable for babies, toddlers, grade schoolers, and even "tweens." Theirs is an inspired achievement.
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