HOW TO HATCH

This step-by-step overview of hatching addresses a gosling embryo directly.

Ackerman’s text cleverly oscillates between two registers: playful second-person commands to the unhatched bird (“Aim your egg tooth. Jab. Inhale”) and factual sidebars explaining embryonic development. This dual-track approach accommodates varied attention spans and developmental stages; younger listeners can follow the energetic main narrative with its satisfying verbs (“UNZIP!” “PIP!” “KAPOW!”), while older children can absorb the scientific details in the teal-bordered text boxes. The vocabulary delights, with phrases such as “pipping muscle,” “ta-tap,” and “don’t dawdle.” Bernstein’s digital illustrations make wonderful use of negative space, isolating the cream-colored egg and golden gosling against clean white backgrounds that focus attention on minute anatomical details and incremental progress. Bernstein’s rendering of textures proves particularly effective—the gosling’s down shifts convincingly from slick, matted wetness to airy fluffiness. The baby’s parent demonstrates subtle shifts in posture and expression (vigilant neck stretching during pipping, tender head-tucking with hatchlings) that convey attentiveness without anthropomorphizing. Cross-section views inside the darkened shell rely on dramatic chiaroscuro to illuminate the cramped embryo’s struggle, creating visual tension that culminates in a lovely payoff as the gosling emerges at last.

A scientifically sound and artfully executed introduction to avian biology imbued with both wonder and accuracy.