An Egg is Quiet is a rich natural history picture book, celebrating diversity by showcasing over sixty eggs from birds, fish, reptiles, insects and more. Aston’s poetic introduction (“It sits there, under it’s mother’s feathers… on top of it’s father’s feet… buried beneath the sand. Warm. Cozy.”) is the jumping off point for an eggs factapolooza. Eggs are described visually as shapely, colorful, textured, and artistic, with beautifully rendered examples of each. Eggs are also characterized as clever (for camoflague) and giving (for nurturing). Textual asides provide more information about a particular species or trait. Each egg is indentied by common name. Dinosaurs and embryos are given a little extra attention. Eggs pictured larger than actual size are noted, all measurements are given in English and compared to objects children might be familiar with, such as a jellybean.The paintings are absolutely gorgeous from the lush endpapers patterned after the Scarlet tanager egg, to the closeup of a nest with one ready-to-hatch egg. The attention to detail is incredible: twisting branches and vines, patterned stones, and tendrils of grass and leaves augment the pictures and fill in habitat. The design itself is lovely and elegant – a large readable script for the main text, and neatly lettered blurbs that act as field notes with more information.This is potentially a great book for one-on-one sharing; the images create plenty of opportunity for dialogue, and several activities appear to be built in. The first two page spread contains every egg found in the book, and the final two page spread shows the adult animal, creating an opportunity for a matching game. Young readers will enjoy also spotting specific eggs identified in the "colorful" spread in other places in the book - a kind of paper egg hunt! The ending invites audience participation.No sources are cited; the acknowledgements thank an earth scientist, a birder and a biologist. This fine complement to the science curriculum is recommended for public and school libraries.
With a whole slew of spring books chosen from the library, this is the one my 6-year-olds went back to again and again. They adored seeing the various shapes, sizes, and colors of the eggs and trying to match the illustrations to eggs they've seen in life. Also fascinating to them was the illustration of embryonic development inside a hen egg, a salmon egg, and a grasshopper egg. The information itself was a bit beyond their capabilities, but the pictures got across to them those things they were ready to grasp.This book has an interesting format that makes it suitable for a wide range of ages. For the young, non-readers, the parent can skip all of the more in depth information given in various asides throughout the book and read the simple, scripted text. For children capable of readin on their own, there are little factoids on each page that elaborates on the simpler text.
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This book was right up my niece's alley. She loves non-fiction books, and she loves nature, so An Egg Is Quiet was something very enjoyable for her. She and I particularly enjoyed that this book showed eggs from birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and even from insects, and she was very impressed with the page that showed the development of a chicken, grasshopper, and salmon embryo. She even took the time to try to educate her little brother about that, but unfortunately, he wasn't in the mood to be educated today. Both children and I enjoyed the first page that showed the eggs of various animals, and the final page that showed pictures of the creatures that hatch out of those eggs. It was fun to try to match the egg to the creature, and it was fun to pick out our favorite eggs and our favorite creatures!
—Amy
This is an informational text about eggs; the variety of eggs and other facts about them. All though the text is informational, children will enjoy reading and listening to it as much as a fiction book because it is told in a very interesting and child friendly way. The illustrations add so much to the huge variety of eggs described in this book; there are smooth eggs, and speckled eggs, etc. Much like the other books by this author, this book is packed with facts and information and is a great way to start teaching a new topic to a class of young students.
—Yusra Faridi
If you're looking for an educational book about birds and bird eggs, this is a great resource. Several, probably over 50, different types of eggs are discussed with informational blurbs written beneath them. The illustrations are beautiful and accurate. Towards the end, it shows how birds and other creatures break out of the egg and begin to live their lives. The author and illustrator also do a great job of showing what these animals look like and how they lived their lives after they have hatched. I love this book, and would recommend for anyone with younger children or teacher sad who are doing bird units.
—Sara Bland
