Rechenka's Eggs by Patricia Polacco

 

This Patricia Polacco book is about a Babushka who was known throughout Moscow for painting detailed and beautiful eggs.  While she is painting the eggs for the Easter Festival, she “adopts” an injured goose, that she names Rechenka.  Babushka and Rechenka get along great until one day, Rechenka knocks over a basket of eggs that Babushka had painted.  Babushka was very upset, but the next morning when she woke up, the basket had one beautiful egg in it.  Every morning, for the next 12 mornings, when Babushka woke up, there was a beautiful egg in the basket.  Babushka got to go to the Easter Festival after all.  When Babushka returned from the festival she went straight to sleep.  The next morning, Rechenka was gone, but there was an egg in her basket- an egg that was different than all of the others.  There was a break in the egg and out popped a baby goose.  

After reading this book in my classroom, I would read other Patricia Polacco books to my students.  I would want them to really study the illustrations on each page and compare them to one another.  I would also have my students look at the patterns in Rechenka's Eggs- on the eggs, carpets, blankets, etc- and look for similarities and differences.