Funny and sweet and thought-provoking. I really, really liked that none of the snakes, lizards, dinosaurs, fossils, and birds were gendered, because the gender didn't matter at all. But so many other books would automatically make everything a "he" or painstakingly throw in a "she", or even alternate ... when the whole thing actually is irrelevant to the story and "it" works completely well. Anyway, that's just an aside: What's delightful about the story is its whimsical "except if" continuations, which also happen to tell a bit of an evolutionary story. ( )

This story was a big hit with Toddler Monkey, because it coincidentally features one of her new favorite words "except" (though she likes to say "except of" instead of "except if," as in, "Everyone loves spinach, except of me!") The book reads as a kind of exploration of the imagination. What could possibly come out of an egg? What might this snake also look like? The book also includes a dinosaur and fossils, which are a topic of great fascination right now. "What happened to the dinosaurs? What is the fossil?" The only source of confusion for my toddler is that the book doesn't look like the bones we've seen in the museum. I guess it's more of an impression kind of fossil. In any case, I already had to read this book about a million times the first week we got it.

Note: I received a free copy of this book directly from the publisher. ( )

Highly Recommended

The story starts off with an egg. Readers will assume it is a bird egg and then everything changes with the words “except if.” The story goes from a bird, to a snake, to a lizard, dinosaur, to a fossil to a cliff that holds an egg. The reader will come full circle to a bird.
This book will entertain children from preschool to 1st grade. The pictures are cute pastel and watercolor illustrations. They are simple pictures, but with small details that will entertain children. Readers will want to predict the direction the story will go in and they will continue to be surprised. Once the words “except if” show up, things are about to change. The message is pretty powerful for small children written in such a simple way. Things are not always as they appear. This would be a really good read aloud book for the classroom or the library. Groups of small children will remain riveted to the end of the book. It is short enough not to lose listeners. Art activities could be incorporated into a school library or public library story time. Narrators will probably get a squeal of laughter from children at the last page of the story. It’s cute and I would recommend it for any Easy Reader section. ( )

Ok, now I want to do a story time with this, that monster book, and that backwards princess book. ( )

Funny and sweet and thought-provoking. I really, really liked that none of the snakes, lizards, dinosaurs, fossils, and birds were gendered, because the gender didn't matter at all. But so many other books would automatically make everything a "he" or painstakingly throw in a "she", or even alternate ... when the whole thing actually is irrelevant to the story and "it" works completely well. Anyway, that's just an aside: What's delightful about the story is its whimsical "except if" continuations, which also happen to tell a bit of an evolutionary story. ( )