El extraño huevo

PreS-Gr 2—This is the Spanish translation of the author's The Strange Egg. The titular egg is indeed very strange. It is so strange that it's not really an egg at all but an orange. First a bird finds it, and then a monkey sees the bird. The monkey breaks the "egg." The two animals discover that they can eat it. They plant the orange seeds. The bird and monkey become friends and have lots of oranges to eat. The story is slight. However, the simplicity of the language lends itself well to a very readable Spanish translation. The book's illustration and design are stellar. DePalma uses collage elements such as torn bits of newspaper and a map to lead young readers through the story in a logical way. In the spread where the bird listens to, smells, observes, stands on, and finally tries to wake the "egg" with her song, the images present the bird's actions enclosed in small squares and rectangles of differing sizes.