YOU CAN’T LAY AN EGG IF YOU’RE AN ELEPHANT

This gentle introduction to animal birth compares the eggs and babies of small and large birds, small and large mammals, chimps and human beings. Following the same format as the author and illustrator’s You Can’t Take Your Body to a Repair Shop (2004), the informational text is interspersed with short, often silly poems that might help young listeners remember the facts. Cartoon-style illustrations, apparently pen and ink with watercolor, nicely complement the text. Unfortunately, the page showing egg sizes and colors includes a chicken egg that is far smaller than the eggs readers will have encountered in their kitchens. The others seem to be similarly reduced in size. In the section on penguins, there are contradictory statements about whether a chick is ever left alone. The chapter comparing human and chimp babies is nicely organized to demonstrate the chimp’s initial head start and the child’s later, different abilities, but the scientist whose observations led to this information is unnamed. Disappointing. (Picture book/nonfiction. 5-8)