Mary Veronica's Egg - Hardcover

Nethery, Mary

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0531331342 ISBN 13: 9780531331347

Publisher: Orchard Books, 1999

Synopsis

Mary Veronica learns an important lesson about love while she cares for an egg that is getting ready to hatch

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

Feathery colored-pencil illustrations set a cozy, intimate tone for this sweetly wry tale of a girl who finds and cares for an orphaned egg. Mary Veronica is convinced there's something special inside the egg?"Maybe a platypus, or even a python")?while her sisters toss their own speculations into the mix: older and disdainful Mary Louise says, "That's a rotten egg," while younger and gullible Mary Margaret repeatedly contends, "It's a dinosaur egg. Can I have it?" Mary Veronica's beloved egg doesn't win her the gold ribbon for Most Unusual Pet at the school pet fair, but its contents (a duckling) do eventually win a special place in the girl's heart. Nethery's (Hannah and Jack) ingenuous tale is winningly told; her dry humor pervades in the snappy repartee between the sisters and in smaller touches like the "Egg on Board" sign that Mary Veronica tapes onto the school bus window. Yalowitz (Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch) makes effective use of line in his airy and delicately shaded illustrations, echoing the smooth oval of Mary Veronica's egg in the softly rounded shapes of the characters. This affectionate homage to the rewards of patience and perseverance is an altogether agreeable outing. Ages 4-7.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal:

Kindergarten-Grade 2-Mary Veronica finds a warm egg near the pond and feels sure that there is something special inside of it, something that will provide her with the winning entry in the Most Unusual Pet category at the school pet fair. Despite heckling from her sisters, she cares for the egg and carries it around in a fluff-filled box in a sling. She enters it in the contest even though it has not hatched. After all of the prizes are distributed, the egg finally cracks to reveal a duckling. The joy and pride of parenthood overcome all selfish plans and Mary Veronica is happy with her new baby. While the message of loving something for its own sake is clear, it is difficult to believe that the egg or the unhatched duck would have survived away from the nest and bounced around between home and school. Varying in size from small boxes to double-page spreads, the colored-pencil pictures in light hues are delightful. They contain just enough detail, and the faces of the doll-like characters are amazingly expressive. Still, Dr. Seuss's Horton knows much more about eggs and teaches a better lesson.
Marlene Gawron, Orange County Library, Orlando, FL
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Orchard Books
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0531331342
• ISBN 13: 9780531331347
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Yalowitz Paul