HATCH AND MATCH

Seeking an eggs-cellent attention grabber? Look no further!

Narrated in rollicking verse, this exuberant Australian import offers multiple learning opportunities for the very young: color recognition, practice honing visual-literacy skills, vocabulary enrichment, rhyme appreciation, and development of early math skills, including counting, matching, and sorting. All this while early learners are having a grand time helping hens find the eggs that match their own colors and vivid designs. An unseen narrator invites kids to get in on the hens’ high-spirited search. Will they want to? You bet. This jolly offering will have kids eagerly engaged, right up to the satisfying conclusion. Onomatopoeic sound effects are well incorporated into the text and visuals and are rendered in large, boldfaced capitals (“CLUCK, CLUCK, SQUAWK!”). The textured, brilliantly colored digital illustrations are a major draw: They look as if they were created on a grained background and have an embroidered appearance. The opening scene—“Chickens roosting in the tree”—resembles a piece of Eastern European folkloric art. The final message of the story is perhaps the best part: Chickens are “same but different…Just the same as you and me.” Background characters are racially diverse.

A terrific way for kids to count chickens before they hatch—and practice other skills besides.