Oliver and His Egg

PreS-Gr 1—First introduced in Schmid's Oliver and His Alligator (Disney-Hyperion, 2013), Oliver appears to be the pensive, solitary sort. After finding a rock on the playground, he imagines that it is actually an egg containing a dinosaur that will grow up with him, share his cookies, and accompany him on a great many adventures. When his reverie is broken by a little girl who asks, "Why are you sitting on that rock?" Oliver abandons the egg idea and instead imagines adventures with his new captive audience of friends. The final spread shows his new friends sitting on rocks of their own, looking to Oliver for inspiration. Schmid's characteristic pastel pencil illustrations cleverly juxtapose the rock and the child's hopes for it on the same page or spread, and the art and simple story line capture the possibilities of imagination and the tender but often tenuous nature of playtime dynamics. The large, uncluttered pictures that stand out on ample white space make the book a good choice for group sharing.—Jenna Boles, Greene County Public Library, Beavercreek, OH