By Susan Ciancio
“It’s a small living somebody.”
This Easter season, celebrate life, spring, and the arrival of a special someone with the book Evalina’s Egg.
While collecting berries for the winter, a sweet little mouse named Evalina finds an abandoned egg under a thimbleberry bush. Stunned at the sight of an egg all alone, she looks around for the mother, but sees no one. Feeling a sense of responsibility, she stays with the egg all day long waiting for the mother to return. When no one comes back for the egg, Evalina makes a decision. She knows she cannot leave the egg in the cold by itself, so she wraps it up in her cloak to take it home and care for it as if it were her own.
On her way home, she meets the mayor, who doesn’t hesitate to help her carry her basket of berries while she carries the egg.
Once home, Evalina puts the egg in her bed and makes sure it’s warm and comfortable. Then she spends the next several weeks taking good care of it and collecting extra food, for she knows that once the egg hatches, her new “somebody” will be hungry and need to eat—especially as winter is drawing near.
One day, as she’s gathering food, Evalina meets her neighbor, who asks why she’s working so hard. Evalina explains about her egg, and the neighbor happily jumps in to help her collect extra food. Every day for the rest of the summer, this neighbor gives a little of her own food to Evalina to help.
As summer draws to a close, Evalina eagerly anticipates her new somebody’s birth. She knows that whatever is in the egg has to hatch soon.
Soon after, Evalina’s cousin visits and the two sit together talking and musing about the egg. Suddenly, they hear a crack and excitedly watch as her “somebody” emerges.
At the end of the book, Evalina throws a special party with all of her friends to celebrate the birth, and the whole community has fun celebrating the new addition to her family.
This sweet story has so many lessons to teach young children. They see a character who’s willing to change her life to take care of a new “somebody.” They see characters helping with no expectation of getting anything in return. And they see the joy as these characters wait for a new life to emerge. The characters and their actions will inspire conversations about building a culture of life, about how to treat others, and about the importance of helping the “least of these”—those in need. Your children will love the adorable drawings as they, too, await the birth of this new life. And, with each page, their anticipation and excitement will grow as they wonder what will emerge from the egg.
This book will make a great addition to your family library. To help bring this wonderful story into your home, CLSP has teamed up with the author of Evalina’s Egg to give away five copies. Enter below:
And if you just can’t wait, please visit the Amazon link- Evalina’s Egg – to get your copy today!
