10 Easter Egg Hunters: A Holiday Counting Book

Publishers Weekly

In Davick and the late Schulman's third holiday counting title, 10 impish children hunt for eggs inside and outside a purple house that could pass for Barbie's starter home ("Pam looks in the tulip pots,/ Finds an egg with polka dots"). Schulman has fun with her rhymed couplets ("And now for something really delicious,/ A big chocolate egg for sweet Aloysius"), and readers can count the eggs that accumulate on the right side of each spread. An energetic Easter morning read. Ages 3–8. (Feb.)

Children's Literature - Lisa Kuehne

There aren't too many things more exciting for a child than waking up on Christmas morning, trick-or-treating for Halloween, and looking throughout the house for hidden Easter eggs. Schulman takes this childhood passion and creates an entertaining book of children searching for eggs. Not only does this book teach counting from one to ten, but also gives children an exciting hide and seek adventure to find all the hidden eggs. Eggs are hidden inside a mailbox row, behind curtains, up in trees, and other interesting places like flower boxes; all of which should get children anxious to turn each page and discover where the next egg is hiding. Davick's illustrations bring this Easter story to life. One small quibble: there are certain pages within this book where you can barely read the text because the background trees or buildings are so dark and the words don't stand out enough. Ultimately, Schulman makes counting a blast and leaves children craving for more. Reviewer: Lisa Kuehne

Kirkus Reviews

Preschoolers who are learning to count will find little help in this ill-conceived story about 10 children on an Easter egg hunt for their own uniquely decorated eggs. The format uses a large illustration and two rhyming lines of text on each left-hand page, with a panel on the right-hand page stating the total number of eggs found so far and showing those differently colored eggs in a larger, uniform size. The primary illustration presents several children from the cast of 10, all searching for their own special eggs, with one child finding an egg on each spread. The concept is confusing, because the stated number of eggs usually does not correspond with the number of eggs shown in the hunt scene. For example, on the page for 10 eggs, only six eggs are shown in the larger illustration. Sometimes one of the eggs in the illustration is from the following page's find, so that particular color of egg is not included in the tally of eggs found so far, even though the egg is right there in the illustration. Children who are used to practicing totaling up a number of items in counting books will wonder what is going on here, and in fact, it's confusing for adult readers who are trying to help them. Count this one out.(Picture book. 2-5)

School Library Journal

PreS-Gr 1—Written in rhyming couplets, this counting book brings back the kids from 10 Trick-or-Treaters (2005) and 10 Trim-the-Tree'ers (2010, both Knopf). It opens with a fluffy white Easter bunny waking to hide a basket of eggs. The 10 eager children search high and low, inside and out. Baby is the first to find an egg. "Baby crawls across the floor./What is that by the mouse door?" As each child meets with success, the eggs are tallied in a right-hand sidebar of the spread. The children track down all of the eggs in time to attend the Easter parade in their festive holiday hats. Flat cartoon illustrations feature grinning, round-faced children and a palette of pastel pinks, yellows, greens, and blues. For a more vibrant celebration of this Easter tradition, Jan Brett's The Easter Egg (Putnam, 2010) and Michael Garland's The Great Easter Egg Hunt (Dutton, 2005) are better selections.—Linda L. Walkins, Mount Saint Joseph Academy, Brighton, MA