Small speckled egg

Welcoming and engaging, the Start Small, Think Big series (2 titles) does a particularly nice job of tracing the life cycle of flora and fauna, while also placing it within a larger environmental context. These UK imports are amiably narrated by their subjects (a nut and a baby bird) as they grow and mature into their adult forms. In Small, Speckled Egg, an Arctic tern grows in its egg, hatches, learns to catch fish, and embarks on an epic migration. Both books feature a bold sentence or two per page that conveys the general plot-progression for the youngest readers, while additional text blocks offer older readers more facts about the setting and journey taking place. The real wow-factor appears in each book's final spread, which folds out into a four-page display that includes a map, an illustrated recap of the plant or animal life cycle, an "I-Spy" feature that sends kids back through the book, and a "Think Big!" box of big-picture facts.

An introduction to Arctic terns, the animals with the longest migratory routes on Earth. Between a die-cut front cover hole exposing the titular egg on the title page and a foldout map at the end, a tern describes its life cycle from hatchling to parent as, in smaller type, the author fills in details about diet, predators, behavior, and the annual migratory cycle that takes these birds from Arctic to Antarctic regions and back. Further comments on the foldout map expand on the main narrative with references to the terns' amazing navigational abilities, sensitivity to magnetic fields, and other topics. Terreros-Martin caps her set of accurately detailed images of birds in rocky and nautical settings with a fetching mixed gallery of eggs and chicks representing the 50 offspring that tern couples will produce on average over their 30-year lifespans, then closes on the foldout leaf with both global range maps and images of whales and other animals, which alert young viewers can go back to spot in previous scenes. Specific but easily absorbable facts combined with illustrations that reward closer (and repeated) looks make this book particularly appealing for younger readers, alone or in groups. More than enough verbal and visual appeal to fly off shelves. (Informational picture book. 6-8) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.