All In Good Time! Peep and Egg (I'm Not Hatching!) by Laura Gehl

"ARE YOU HATCHING YET?" PEEP ASKED.

"WE'RE GOING TO HAVE SO MUCH FUN ONCE YOU ARE HATCHED!"

"TOO SCARY!" SAID EGG.

Being hatched is not all it's cracked up to be!

At least that's Egg's position, and his decision remains firm.

At least one position is cleared up in the "Which came first?" conundrum. Peep is definitely the first, and she's ready to do it ALL!

"WE CAN STROLL TO THE POND AND SAY 'HI!' TO THE DUCKS!" SAID PEEP.

"TOO FAR."SAID EGG.

I'M NOT HATCHING!"

One is the loneliest number. So Peep persists in her persuasion. They could take a ride on Sheep's warm, woolly back. They could play hide and seek in the tall grass. At night they could roost on the tractor and count the stars. But the deal is not a soft sell. Egg is a hard case to crack.

"I'M NOT HATCHING!"

Even the Peep's promise of a blueberry muffin picnic fails to crack Egg's resolve.

With a sort of '"See you later, procrastinator" wave, Peep walks away to find her own fun alone.

And then she hears that sound!

It seems Egg's resolve has, er, cracked, at last, and with a cap of shell still clinging to his head, he runs after Peep to join her in their big adventure.

Laura Gehl's Peep and Egg: I'm Not Hatching (Farrar, Straus and Giroux Press, 2016) is the best egg story of the spring season. Stubborn and scared, Egg finally gives in to the inevitable at last, and all's well that ends well in this subtly told story of taking that next big step in life. Preschoolers will empathize with both characters, the early adopter and the late bloomer, all the while knowing how this one is bound to end. In simple thick-line drawings, each of the few lines illustrator Joyce Wan uses is fully expressive, and the artwork is all it's cracked up to be in this comical pre-Easter tale that begs to be read--with lots of eggs-pression.