2008 Caldecott Honor Book, First the Egg by Laura Vaccaro Seeger

In First the Egg, Seeger uses color and geometry to creatively integrate the color of previous pages into the design of the current page. The result is a short little book whose every page leaves the reader wondering why each background color was chosen for every page, and what that background color will become once the page is flipped.

The message of this story is quite simple: things grow and develop. The egg develops into the chicken. The seed grows into a flower, and again at the end, the chicken develops another egg.

The best of the examples of growth and development is the page that shows the development from a word into a story. This could encourage students to begin creating their own stories, either through writing or through story-telling.










Seeger, L.V. (2007). First the egg. New Milford, Connecticut: Roaring Brook Press.

Seeger, L.V. (2007). wplnewchildrensbooks. Retrieved February 6, 2009, from wplnewchildrensbooks Web site: http://wplnewchildrensbooks.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/egg.jpg