Egg-regious Adventure: Oliver and His Egg by Paul Schmid

WHEN OLIVER FOUND HIS EGG...

Well, it isn't exactly an egg. It's a large oval rock that looks like...

... an EGG!

But when Oliver sits on top of it, the fertile imagination that lives under that tousled head of hair goes to work immediately. The rock becomes an orange egg, from which hatches....

... an orange-spotted... something-or-other.

It looks like a dinosaur or a sea serpent and it looks like a friend, and as soon as Oliver shares his cookies and milk, his friend begins to grow.

It grows into something like a giant Viking ship pool float, and Oliver dons his Viking helmet as they sail off to have adventures on a deserted island, where happily there are marshmallows for roasting.

Then it's back to adventuring, as Oliver's friend morphs into an orange spaceship, and they land on their own planet, space helmets in place for some space walking. But just then a girl's voice is heard from far-away earth.

"OLIVER!..."

"WHY ARE YOU SITTING ON THAT ROCK?"

Poof! Oliver looks down. By George, he is sitting on a rock. Oliver and the girl size each other up silently.

Should he tell her what the rock really is?

Paul Schmid's second Oliver story, Oliver and his Egg (Hyperion Books, 2014) is a celebration of the imaginary adventures kids hatch in their fertile fancy. Schmid makes the most of his simple palette of lavender, orange, gray, and white, done up in his characteristic black line drawings, as he lets his story emerge naturally, even using a final four-page gatefold spread to reveal the possibilities when all of the kids let their fancies fly free.

Other books by Schmid include his notable back-to-school story, Oliver and his Alligator (see my review and Schmid's comment here), his A Pet for Petunia and Hugs from Pearl.