posted on 27 Mar 2023

Pick a Perfect Egg by Patricia Toht, illustrated by Jarvis

With the Easter holiday coming along very soon, you may be trying to think of a lovely picture book about the season to share with your young child. If that’s the case, you might want to give Pick a Perfect Egg by Patricia Toht a chance. American author, Toht knows what she’s about – she has owned a children’s bookshop and has already authored several other picture books for children and has collaborated before with illustrator, Jarvis.

Pick a Perfect Egg is a rhyming tale that would be perfect for an adult reading out aloud with a young child and the beautifully coloured illustrations that fill the pages offer the chance for the adult to add description to the rhymes and to discover detail that they can talk about.

When the small child and her mother go to the farm to select a tray of eggs to buy it’s not to have them for breakfast or for the next baking project – these eggs are Easter eggs! Back home they will be boiled to make them hard and then the shells are beautifully decorated using all kinds of natural dyes and colourings (and there are some useful tips here too for any parent and child thinking that they’d like to have a go at this).

The next day dawns and its time for the little girl and her mother to take their basket of decorated eggs and join in the great egg hunt that’s been prepared overnight. There’s all sorts of eggs to be found – plastic ones containing gifts of all kinds and chocolate ones wrapped in foil.

Once the little girl has collected the ones she’s discovered she can bring out her bowl of decorated hard-boiled eggs and add these prizes to bowl:

“Make a multi-coloured mound!

Found eggs.

Dyed eggs.

Eggs galore!”

The eggs aren’t just eggs any more – they are a celebration of the coming Spring.

Manchester-based artist, Jarvis who has previously worked in record cover design and animation, is now a seasoned children’s book illustrator and makes a fine job of this one. The drawings are big and bold and perfectly suited to a younger reading audience and I especially like the very bold use of colour. This is a good example of words and illustration operating in perfect harmony.

Published by Walker Books and guided for children aged 3+, the book can be obtained from your local independent bookshop, who will order it for you if they don’t have a copy on the shelf.

 

Terry Potter

March 2023