EGGDAY

Dunbar (Tell Me Something Happy Before I Go to Sleep, 1998, etc.) joins Helme Heine (The Most Wonderful Egg in the World, 1983) and Mary Jane Auch (The Easter Egg Farm, 1992) in serving up with gusto a cast of unusual egg producers. When Dora the duck announces “Tomorrow is Eggday,” Pogson the pig, Humphrey the horse, and Gideon the goat are puzzled as to how they will lay a pig egg, a horse egg, and a goat egg in their respective efforts to win the contest. The instructive Hetty Hen, a true egg-layer, quickly sets them straight, lending her own eggs, which they decorate for the contest. As expected, Dora the duck’s own egg hatches overnight, and she declares a new holiday—Duckling Day. Cabrera transforms the farmyard plot with a pleasingly free-form style and candy-bright colors. Every page bristles with color; brush strokes, dots, blots, and thumbprints create multi-layered scenes that fairly sing. (Picture book. 3-6)