Eggs

What happens when a 13-year-old girl who invents a non-existent father and lives with a palm-reading wacky mother befriends a 9-year-old boy who is mourning his mother's death? You end up with a sometimes explosive, rocky friendship that bonds two lonely children together in their need for love and acceptance. In this another "I-read-this-because-I love-the-author" book, Jerry Spinnelli's new book, Eggs, will not disappoint readers from 4th grade through middle school. Teachers can use Eggs to begin a discussion of how these young characters say "I hate you" to one another, but just like people in real life, their actions really say, "I want to be your friend." I am impressed with Spinnelli's consistent ability to paint a visual image and show characters through their dialogue and actions. I regularly use Misha from Milkweed in seminars where I show teachers how an author "shows" rather than "tells about" a character—another way in which teachers can also use this book. I may just have to add Primrose, a main character in Eggs, to my teaching repertoire. (Little, Brown, and Young Readers, 2007)