Have you seen my egg? by Penny Olsen

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Ill. by Rhonda N. Garwar, National Library of Australia, 2013.
(Ages: 5+) Picture book. Australian animals. A non fiction book presented as a story of an emu looking for his missing egg, this book will interest and inform younger readers about the Australian environment and the sorts of eggs which exist. The emu begins with the magpies, describing his missing egg as large, green and hard shelled, but the magpies tell him that their eggs are small and spotty, and a life the flap in the corner shows one of the eggs hatching. On he goes to the echidna, the lizard, a frog, snail, shark and crocodile with a few others between, all the time describing his egg in the same way and having the other respond with a description of their eggs.
Readers will enjoy spotting the eggs and the hatching animals, recognising the animals as they appear on the pages, lifting the flap to see what is underneath and counting the number of eggs produced by each animal.
The environment as well as the animals are presented in a bold mix of colours, each page giving a strong sense of where that animal lives. At the end of the book are four pages with photos and information which add to the overall interest for the reader and educator.
Fran Knight

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