The Stone Hatchlings by Sarah Tsiang
Illustrated by Qin Leng
Young Abby finds 2 heavy eggs in her backyard that must have fallen from a nest. She creates a nest of clothing and proceeds to sit on it. Mom sees the eggs and tells Abby they are actually stones,"but Abby knew an egg when she sat on one".
Abby imagines that the eggs could be alligators, birds, or turtles. She awakes in the morning, imagination vivid, to her eggs hatching into chicks. She feeds them sunflower seeds, paints with them, watches TV with them and even bathes with them. The 'birds' begin to act down and depressed and Abby realizes it is time to let them go.
Much more than a story of a pet rock! This book is just darling in the imagination of a child visualizing that these 2 stones turned into chicks. She carries them everywhere and is convinced they are chicks. Her parents are so gracious in going along with the adventure. The stones help Abby as she raising them up, fuel for her imagination. She goes from eggs hatching through the process of realizing that the birds need to be released back into nature. The whole while they are really just stones. She imagines the entire life cycle and in her own young heart realizes she must let them go to be happy.
We all have to learn to set things free in life, sometimes sooner than we like to. This story will show youngsters the power of imagination as well as loving something enough to set it free.
The artwork by Qin Leng is beautifully detailed. She adds just the right amount of details to the picture to add depth, but retain its whimsicalness. (is that a word?). Love the drawings and I will be looking for other stories that this team has created together for our personal library.
There is nothing that I can add to this excellent review by a guest blogger. The book sounds amazing and the concept creative, inspiring and educational. I love to celebrate Canadian authors and illustrators. Check it out today. Read on.
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