THAT EGG IS MINE!

Goulet Dubois brings the laughs in this story featuring a pair of bickering birds, the first installment in a new early reader series.

Cluck, a blue chicken, is missing an egg; Duck, a yellow duck, has found one. They each believe the egg belongs to them. Both birds have white speckles—Duck on its blue bill and Cluck all over its blue body—making it plausible that either of them could have laid the white-speckled blue egg. The two birds spar hilariously over which of them is the rightful owner, and Cluck even goes so far as to accuse Duck of stealing. The duck tells a cockamamie story to explain how it found the egg and concludes that “finders keepers.” When an accident reveals who the egg truly belongs to, readers will laugh out loud at the unexpected twist. Goulet Dubois’ softly colored illustrations, rendered in colored pencils and digital paints, make good use of white space with just enough text per page—an effective combination for the emergent reader crowd. The use of speech bubbles and the occasional presence of comic book–style panels will appeal to children who enjoy and seek out graphic novels. A generous dose of onomatopoeia makes the story a fun read-aloud. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A welcome addition to the early reader landscape that tickles the funny bone.