PPBF – ERGO

Eggs are on everyone’s mind these days. So when I saw today’s Perfect Picture Book, I couldn’t resist reading and reviewing it.

Title: ERGO

Written By: Alexis Deacon

Illustrated By: Viviana Schwarz

Publisher/Date: Candlewick Press/2021

Suitable for Ages: 4-8, and older

Themes/Topics: philosophy, the world, eggs, questions

Opening:

Ergo woke up and set off to explore the world.

The first thing she found were her toes. They wiggled.

Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle.

WOW.

GREAT START, she thought.

She decided to keep on exploring.

Brief Synopsis: A chick wakes up in an egg and thinks it’s the entire world.

Links to Resources:

·      Describe your home or school or town where you live. Are there others like you there? How is your home the same or different than others in your town or school?

·      Check out these egg activities;

·      Try drawing a chick.

Why I Like this Book:

With strait-forward text and expressive illustrations, the team of Deacon and Schwarz, who also penned I AM HENRY FINCH (link is to my review), set off to explore the world from a young child’s perspective. At first, it’s the toes that they notice and wiggle. Then wings (or for humans, fingers, hands, and arms), and beak (or mouth). Ergo thinks, “I am the world and the world is me” – a totally child-centric view of life.

But as adults know, and children learn, life doesn’t always revolve around us. Also, as with an egg, there may be a wall separating us from others. Ergo recognizes the sadness of this separation as, hopefully, children do, too. She fights to break down the wall, pecking at the eggshell to reach the wider world and life in a community.

I love how young children can read ERGO and focus on the actions of young Ergo as she discovers her toes, wings, beak, and the eggshell. But for older children, and adults, the text raises so many questions: what is our world? what is our place in it? how do we interact with others?

The illustrations are set against white or colored backgrounds, with Ergo’s face comprising one entire page towards the beginning, Ergo growing small as she contemplates a world outside her shell, and Ergo finally appearing with others towards the end. Because Ergo is a chick, Schwarz fills the pages with wonderful yellows and oranges – a lovely reprieve from dark winter days.

A Note about Craft:

Deacon asks big questions in ERGO, but with its straight-forward text, close third-person perspective, and engaging illustrations, it’s a book that will appeal to young kids not yet able to articulate life’s big questions, and older readers already asking them.

This Perfect Picture Book entry is being added to Susanna Hill’s Perfect Picture Book list. Check out the other great picture books featured there!