Shake a Leg, Egg!

In a nest by a springtime pond, several baby Canada geese hatch from their eggs, but one straggler remains in its shell. In gentle urging verse that seems to channel the voice of the geese’s mother, Cyrus (Billions of Bricks) addresses the gosling inside the unopened egg: “Buds are bursting open./ Sprouts are breaking through./ Eggs are hatching everywhere./ You can do it too!” Cyrus’s artwork is exquisite in its attention to detail, from the mottled texture of the mother goose’s webbed feet to the goslings’ downy feathers and the translucence of broken eggshells; shifts in perspective capture the buzz of activity within this ecosystem from multiple angles. When the last gosling emerges, Cyrus wisely resists an “Aww, isn’t that cute?” moment, instead portraying the newborn as bedraggled, soggy feathered, and rather dazed—a far cry from its adorable, fluffy brethren. Ages 2–8.[em] Agent: Sean McCarthy, Sean McCarthy Literary. (Mar.) [/em]