An Egg Is Quiet

There are not many informational informational non-fiction books that I would consider creative.  An Egg is Quiet (2006) by Dianna Hutts Aston and illustrated by Sylvia Long, however, I consider to be one of the most creative that I have read. The overall tone of the book is quiet, almost comforting and soothing, as we read about and discover all sorts of information about eggs and the animals that laid them.

An Egg is Quiet is all about eggs. And it is not just about bird eggs, either. It includes shark eggs, insect eggs, reptile eggs, turtle eggs, fish eggs, frogs eggs and everything in between. The main text is simple and straightforward and tells the reader what eggs can be. However, it's the captions and the photos throughout that give the reader the most amazing amount of information on all these eggs.

A fascinating, fun read, An Egg is Quiet utilizes a formal script type font for the main storyline of the book. The font used in the captions, however, is less formal, giving the book a friendly, 'let's talk about eggs' feel to it. The unframed illustrations exquisitely capture the amazing detail and color of the eggs, giving the reader as much detail as the text does.

An Egg is Quiet would be a wonderful hook into a science unit on animals. During a second read through, we could work on comparing and contrasting eggs of different birds, or eggs of different animals. With my kindergartners, we could do a graphic organizer labeling the parts of an egg, or the stages an egg goes through as the animal inside develops and is born.

Simple, but incredibly informative, An Egg is Quiet should have a place on the shelf of any classroom library.