Spinelli, Jerry. Eggs. Little, Brown and Co., 2007. ISBN 9780316166461. $15.99. 220 p.
Reviewer: Jan Staheli
Reading Level: Intermediate
Rating: Outstanding
Genre: Contemporary realistic fiction;
Subject: Friendship--Juvenile fiction; Family life--Juvenile fiction; Books--Reviews;
David is nine and angry because his mother has died. Primrose is thirteen and angry because her mother is “goofy” and thinks she’s psychic. David believes if he obeys all the rules, perhaps his mother will come back. Primrose thinks rules are made to be broken. They seem to be the last two people who could be friends, but they have a strange bond between them, built of dissatisfaction, fear and need. As the summer progresses, they gather trash to sell at the flea market, hunt for worms to start a bait business, go to the library’s Midsummer Night’s Scream as son and mom, and end up trying to walk the railroad tracks to Philadelphia. They learn that being friends means forgiving each other, staying together, and putting arms around each other when it’s really needed.
Jerry Spinelli writes beautifully of children who are struggling with loss, pain and — ultimately — healing. David “still heard his mother’s voice rise like whisper-dust from unseen corners in the house, but it was no longer the only voice he heard. His ears were also filled with the voices of others ... all their words for a thousand years could not fill the hole left by his mother, but they could raise a loving fence around it so he didn’t keep falling in.” This is a sweet book, easy to read, with short chapters and real heart.
Volume 28, no.4 (Mar/April 2008)
