Cracking Up!: Good Egg by Barney Saltzberg

In ten words and a couple of page-turning tumbles, Barney Saltzberg's little board-bound toy and movable book, Good Egg (Workman, 2009) is, as the publisher's blurb promises, a real crack-up.

Die-cuts, page-sized flaps, pull tabs, swing tabs, velcro tabs for a catchable beach ball, and a final surprising pop-up make this book lots of fun for little fingers and eyes, but the humor is the eggstra that puts this creation sunny-side up.

The experience begins with a flat white egg with the caption "EGG." The waiting egg is commanded to sit, whereupon a lifted page flap reveals the obedient egg seated in a chair. Like a dutiful doggy, the egg goes on to lie down, roll over, shake, and play catch, each to earn the approbation of "GOOD EGG!"

The final command to speak gives the egg pause. It seems to crack up under the strain, especially when the command is repeated with an amplified "SPEAK!" A pull tab first reveals a chick peeping warily between the cracked halves, but a turn of the final page pops up the chick, its wings flapping, its beak cheeping proudly, right out of the egg. Good egg, indeed!

To see that this book is all it's cracked up to be, take a look at its perky preview video here.

A great story time break for the pre-Easter period, Saltzberg's Good Egg takes its place with Laura Vaccaro Seeger's award-winning First the Egg (Caldecott Honor Book and Theodore Seuss Geisel Honor Book (Awards)) for eggs-traordinary springtime fun.