Oliver and His Egg by Paul Schmid

Oliver from Oliver and His Alligator returns in a second book.  While on the playground, Oliver finds an egg, really a large smooth rock, that he imagines will hatch into a big orange-polka-dotted dinosaur.  He would have a new friend and they would go on adventures together.   As Oliver dreams of their adventures, the other children find that he is sitting on the “egg” waiting for it to hatch.  So he tells them of his enormous dinosaur-sized dream and they all have to find eggs of their own.

Schmid’s picture book is simple and cheery.  Oliver is a creative little boy, inventing his own worlds.  The book also shows that all children can be creative and use their imaginations.  Just as in the first book, the text is minimal, offering less than a sentence on each page.  It suits a book that is about imagination to have so much left unsaid.

The illustrations are simple too.  Clearly drawn characters are done in simple lines with small touches of color.  They are combined with the rock “eggs” that are photographed stones, giving them a weight that the light illustrations don’t have.  It’s a dynamic combination on the page.

A cheerful follow-up picture book, this second outing for Oliver is great fun for toddlers.   Appropriate for ages 2-4.