Capped with a cheery beret, Eggbert amuses the denizens of the fridge with his paintings; but when his cracks are noticed, he is evicted (``Eggs with cracked shells were not allowed to stay''), with sad good-byes from the other eggs and glares from the veggies. So begins his journey of discovery--to the windowsill, to the garden below where he paints himself to match the flowers, and on to the big world. New adventures bring new realizations: no surface can hide his true, cracked-egg self; but then, the world is literally full of cracks (e.g., in the clouds). The narrative wanders off into its message; still, its insights are delivered with a pleasantly offbeat humor, while Barron--a former animator making his picture-book debut--has created a vivacious Humpty Dumpty look-alike and set him, among other entertaining caricatures, in an inviting world that's as bright as new paint. (Picture book. 4-8)
