Summary: the Odd Egg by Emily Gravett is a story about a duck who feels left out. The story begins with all the birds laying eggs except for the duck. The duck does not want to feel left out so he finds himself an egg. Duck is very proud, happy, and finds his eggs to be the most beautiful. The other birds do not feel the same way about Duck's egg. One day each egg begins to hatch and of course Duck's egg is the last. When it hatches everyone is surprised to see that it is not a bird but an alligator. Despite the differences Duck is happy with his baby alligator. The illustrations are great and playful. The author uses cut out pages to show the hatching of eggs which works wonderful with this story. Response: I rated this book five starts because it is funny and I liked the surprise ending. I enjoyed the cut out pages to show the hatching of the eggs and I also enjoyed the pictures from page to page. Classroom Connection: I would use this book to teach my students self esteem and bullying. After reading The Odd Egg I would have my students write about a time some one put them down or hurt their feelings. I would then ask my students to share with a partner their experience. After the students have shared their experiences I would ask the students to write something that is encouraging in their partners journal. I would then tell all my students that whenever they are feeling down or someone puts them down, to read what their partner wrote to make them feel better. This is a great book to teach respect for others. Textile Measurements: Unfortunately I was not able to find the Lexie or the guided reading level for The Odd Egg. The interest level is from grade Prek to third grade. I feel that this is great read a loud for PreK up to third grade and that students should be able to read it independently by the end of first grade. Summary/Annotation: This story begins with all of the birds laying eggs except for the duck. Instead the duck finds an egg which she thinks is beautiful. The other birds made fun of the egg and thought it was ugly. Eventually everyone's eggs hatched except for duck's egg and she continued to wait for it to do so. Finally the egg hatched and the unexpected happens.Responses: I think this book was wonderful. It shows emotion. The illustrations were very nice as well. The story definitely relates to me because I remember when I was in school I used to get teased by other children. When the other birds were talking about the duck's egg and laughing, that reminded me of my school days. This book made me feel bad for the duck and then I felt suprised at the end. It was very funny.I awarded this book three stars because I enjoyed reading this book. The ending of the book is wonderful and I prefer not to spoil it. It would make everyone laugh. Students could relate to being teased just like it shows in the book.Classroom Connections: I think this book definitely is wonderful to introduce to children because I feel they would be able to make a text to self connection. This book would help students learn that it's not good to tease others. I would read this book most likely at the beginning of the school year so that we can discuss that it's not nice to be rude and make fun of others because sometimes that can come back at you. I would also ask students to provide a picture and description to a different ending that they would have to come up with and explain what would happen.Text Complexity: lexile.com didn't provide a lexile measure for this book. Although I believe that this book would be great from students kindergarten through second grade. Lesson plans should be adjusted depending on the grade level.
And so the duck hatched a crocodile... the end. So funny!
—dani
would pair well with I Want My Hat Backcompare/contrast
—ashmetz15
Sort of scarey. and odd. the story not the egg.
—Brian
