EGGBERT

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)