Daniel’s Mystery Egg
El huevo misterioso de Daniel
Daniel’s Mystery Egg / El huevo misterioso de Daniel
BOOK DESCRIPTION
Daniel finds an egg. What kind of animal will this mystery egg hatch? Imaginations run wild as the kids in Daniel’s class guess what sort of surprise the egg has in store.
Teachers comment that this is an excellent book to practice prediction, since Daniel’s friends are actually predicting which animal may hatch from the surprising egg. Of course they are also enjoying it as a book to talk about animals who hatch from eggs.
Some teachers have paired this book with another of Alma Flor’s books: Who’s Hatching Here? – ¿Quién nacerá aquí?
G. Brian Karas has illustrated dozens of popular books, including Cinder-Elly and Sleepless Beauty by Frances Minters, Saving Sweetness and Raising Sweetness by Diane Stanley, and the HiRise Private Eyes beginning-reader series by Cynthia Rylant. He lives in Rhineback, New York. For this book he used photos of Alma Flor’s grandson Daniel to illustrate the protagonist which Daniel inspired.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
My children’s childhood has been the inspiration of many of my books. As Latino children growing up in the United States some of their experiences reflected that circumstance, many others were universal, and a few were simply unique. Now, I am the grandmother of nine children of mixed heritage, whose heritage includes that of their fathers’ who are both Peruvian and Cuban and their mothers’ of European ancestry with generations in the United Sates.
I wanted to honor my grandson Daniel, a boy of great sensitivity and kindness by making him the protagonist of this book, as of Daniel’s Pet.
REVIEWS
School Library Journal
Grade 1-2. An appealing story in which a boy finds a small white egg. He shows it to three friends, one at a time. Each child speculates as to what might be inside and how to help once it has hatched. After some waiting, what emerges is not an ostrich or an alligator or a duck, as his friends imagined, but a lizard, exactly the kind of animal Daniel predicted-“small, nice, and quiet.” Karas’s collages cover three-fourths of each spread or page and are either above or below the text. Most are in full color, with the exceptions being the illustrations that represent what the three imagine is in the egg. Those pictures are more muted and depict the kids peeking over the edges of the scenes. With large-sized type, short sentences, repeated words and phrases, and plenty of illustrations, this book is just right for beginning readers. – Kathleen Simonetta, Indian Trails Public Library District, Wheeling, IL.
Booklist
Grade 1-2. Daniel finds a little egg, puts it in a box, and shows it to his friends as they come along. The children suggest one dangerous or inconvenient animal after another that might be inside the egg, but Daniel expects a small, nice, quiet pet. To the boy’s great satisfaction, the egg hatches and a lizard emerges. Written with a simple vocabulary and growing sense of anticipation, this story will suit beginning readers well. Karas’ stylized illustrations, collages of cut paper enhanced with drawing and painting, clearly delineate between the actual and imagined scenes. A pleasing entry in the Green Light Reader series. – Carolyn Phelan
READERS’ RESPONSES
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