Egg: Nature's Perfect Package
by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015
The reviewer borrowed a copy of the book from the public library.
Louise and I have been on the lookout for the best nonfiction books of 2015. So far this year (as in past years) biographies and history books outnumber science books by a large margin. However, there is good news! The nonfiction duo of Steve Jenkins and Robin Page have released a new science picture book for the K-3 crowd.
Egg: Nature's Perfect Gift provides young readers with an overview of eggs including sizes, egg design, incubation, and locations where animals lay eggs. The first two pages show a variety of creatures that lay eggs: the banana slug, tarantula, skink, and crow. Dozens of animals are shown throughout the book carrying eggs, eating eggs, and protecting their eggs.
The illustrations are classic Jenkins- cut and torn paper collage in a variety of colors and textures. On several pages eggs are illustrated in their actual sizes, and silhouettes are also used to show scale. Each illustration is accompanied by a caption that includes interesting egg facts. For a slim picture book Egg packs a lot of facts into each page.
"When she spawns, a female blue crab may release as many as eight million eggs into the water."
Readers who are interested in nature will spend time poring over the additional animal facts in the back of the book. Pair Egg: Nature's Perfect Package with An Egg is Quiet by Dianna Hutts Aston
Click here to view how Jenkins and Page researched, wrote and illustrated Egg.