The Egg

Working in crisp collages of cut and painted paper, Valério (At the Pond) creates a wordless origin story. A stork sits on an egg, the picture of contentment. Then, during a rainstorm, the egg falls from the nest. Dark, cut-paper raindrops fall across the page; the stork’s white tears fall, too. In flight, the bird spots another, similar egg. It peers hard at it, neck curled all the way to the ground, then carries the prize back to its nest. Soon, the egg hatches: it’s a pink human baby. The stork protects the babe, feeds it, shelters it in its big white wings. Neighboring storks fly by, each carrying a youngster of their own—a piglet, a brown-skinned human child, a goldfish in a bowl—before this stork decides that its baby is already home. Valério’s memorable artwork and imaginative power give this lighthearted tale extra impact through meticulous spreads that produce a sense of sprightly life and warmth: the stork wields its long scarlet beak and ungainly neck with lifelike sinuousness, and close-ups of its tender care for the infant register as a loving parody of nature documentaries. Ages 3–7. [em](Aug.) [/em]