Good Egg
By Barney Saltzberg
Workman; $9.95
8 pp.; ISBN: 978-0-7611-5406-8

Review by Amy Brozio-Andrews

Just when you think you've seen everything in kids' books, here comes Barney Saltzberg's Good Egg, a delightful and highly interactivelittle picture book that's perfect for spring reading.

Taking off from the familiar "good dog" riff, the egg is at first introduced to readers as merely Egg. Each left-side page gives the command, and paper pulls allow young readers to help Egg follow through on the right. For example, when the command is "Lie down," kids can pull the tab and have the paper egg lean 90 degrees to the right, and of course the phrase "good egg" appears. Kids can help egg roll over, shake, and catch a beach ball (with a dot of Velcro). The real surprise come though when Egg is commanded to speak. The tiniest crack appears, but no speaking for two pages, until a pop-up surprise ending.

Very simple colors and simple design make for an engaging and bright little book. The primary focus is always the egg, no distractions in the illustrations. Although it is board book-sized, it's advised for readers aged 2-5. Good Egg is humorous and highly interactive so that kids can do it themselves, even if they can't read it to themselves, and it's fun for parents and kids to enjoy together too (even I couldn't help but smile at the end) -- even my six-year-old got a kick out of it, and then my kids enjoyed reading it to each other. Sometimes, really good things do actually come in small packages, and Good Egg is one of those times.