A Picture Book a Day for a Year: Day 82

Picture Book: Two Eggs, Please.

Author: Sarah Weeks

Illustrator: Betsy Lewin

Summary: In this clever and comical book, several animal characters come into a diner. Each one orders, “Two eggs, please.” But each wants their eggs prepared differently. The python wants them raw. As they congregate along the diner’s bar, they each think, “Different.” When the waiter comes out declaring, “Two eggs coming up!” and lays the plates in front of them all, they concede, “Different… but the same.”

Hanna’s Comments: This smart story uses the simple, ordinary gesture of ordering 2 eggs to illustrate the extraordinary lesson of commonality within diversity. Also, there is the sense that what’s inside (the eggs in this case) is what really matters. Make sure you read the author entry in the back regarding how this book came to be.

Publisher & Date of Publication: Atheneum Books, 2003

Age & Grade Appropriateness: 3 and up, Pre and up

# of Pages: 32

Available in Spanish? Not at Present

Formats other than Book: Tablet

PBT Category: Post 2K

PBT Topics this Book Connects with: body of Christ, bonds/connections, differences, diversity, eggs/seeds, feasting/food/hunger/nutrition, individuality/uniqueness, integration, religious differences, at table, unity, variety

Scripture Connections: different parts of the body (1 Corinthians 12)

Idea(s) for Application: This book would nicely fit with a lesson for children on how what God has placed inside us counts more than surface differences. Using eggs to demonstrate this point, as in the lesson the author describes in the back of the book, would be particularly illustrative.