THE LOST EGG
From the Hazel and Twig series
by Brenna Burns Yu ; illustrated by Brenna Burns Yu
Hazel and Twig return for a tender, mouse-sized story about sisterhood, nature, and belonging.
In this follow-up to The Birthday Fortune (2018), Hazel and Twig are woodland discoverers of simple wonder. Hazel is the older sister, full of answers and slightly bothered by wandering younger sister Twig. Twig, bringing a toddlerlike joy to each page, undoes Hazel’s daisy chain, loses her own shoe, and finds an abandoned egg. With help from their parents (with Korean names of Umma and Appa, which mean mother and father), the sisters plan for the raising of their newfound egg, including flight lessons and worm catching. But when Twig is separated from the family, Hazel appreciates the importance of reuniting this baby with its parents. The care the mouse sisters show for the lost egg as they search for its nest is earnest and serious. They carefully compare its size and color to other eggs they find. In a world full of pastel-green grass and pink skies, delicate flora and fauna invite a closer look on every page. Done in ink and watercolor, the illustrations include one special page where Yu takes inspiration from the works of 18th-century naturalist James Bolton. In this outing, the Korean references are subtle, almost like a secret.
A gentle, wholly accessible tale of quiet curiosity, the love of family, and the hatching of eggs.
(Picture book. 3-5)