Description
Temporarily out of stock
Title: Good Egg, The
Author: JOHN JORY
Illustrator: OSWALD PETE
Format: HARDCOVER
Publication date: 01/03/2019
Imprint: HARPER COLLINS
Price: $25.00
Publishing status: Active
\”I’ve always been a very good egg. I bet you’re wondering, How good can one egg really be. Well . . . I’ll water your plants. I’ll change your tires. I’ll even paint your house. If you need any help whatsoever, I’m your egg. Yep. I’m a verrrrrry good egg indeed.\” But what if being too good goes wrong?
Bulletin of Ctr for Child Bks (12/01/2018):
Our protagonist is, literally, a good egg (he’s rescuing a cat when we meet him), and he explains he’s always been that way, even in the egg carton with eleven other naughty eggs (\”They ignored their bedtime. They only ate sugary cereal\”). He tried very hard to fix the problematic situation but soon found the strain too much (\”My head felt scrambled\”), so he finally left. On the road, our egg finds some time to focus on himself and heal, and he realizes he can safely return with a better sense of boundaries (\”I’ll be good to my fellow eggs while also being good to myself. . . . The other eggs aren’t perfect, and I don’t have to be either\”). The comedic details of egg life leaven this didactic tale, but while the message is sound if a tad protracted, the persistent misbehavior of our hero’s cartonmates is so often at his expense (and he ends up the graffiti’d butt of the joke even after his return) that his pivot to acceptance seems to normalize a problematic dynamic. The watercolor-based digital art makes the most of the eggy humor, with our protagonist a cocoa oval with big round glasses emphasizing his worried eyes. Soft edges and dapples gentle the impact and add atmosphere to the egg’s search for mindfulness, but there are also plenty of jokey details that should please the audience. Kids may worry that the egg has ultimately made the wrong choice, but his adventures could provoke some discussion about perfectionism and over-responsibility. DS
ISBN: 9780062866004