Tillie Lays An Egg

Tillie doesn't want to wait for a nesting box to be available, so she explores the farm and lays eggs where she wants. Lovely photographs show a variety of chicken breeds in a realistic setting, and the game of finding the wayward eggs adds anther layer ("layer!") of interest.

Tillie is a backyard chicken who, unlike her hen mates goes out looking for worms and laying eggs all over the farm. Children get to engage with pictures by looking for Tillie's egg on each page. Great composition and layout. A game of hide and seek with an object would be fun afterwards. Note: the author has a "Tillie Cam" that anyone can go online to peek and see what tillie is up to. Would also be a good book for making connections with where food comes from.

The stunning photography combined with the fun of look-and-find,
"Where has Tillie laid her egg?"
and the attendant humor (Tillie lays her eggs on the kitchen table and the ironing board, among other unlikely places!)
make this book a winner!!

The photography in this book is incredible. Taken at the author's own farm and with her personal things she has arranged within the photos, it tells a story of a chicken laying an egg everywhere except in the nesting box. There is an egg hidden in every photo, which young children would have fun finding on each page.

Picture Book
Tillie does not want to lay her eggs like the other hens on the farm. She wanders all around the farm and lays her eggs in odd places. Children have fun looking for her egg on each page. The photographs are very realistic and give kids a good look at what a real life farm and chicken coup look like. They also love seeing the names of the hens and identifying them on each page. This book would be great for helping students learn howw to make predictions.

I found the layout of artwork to be bland (like scrapbooking set like) but the realistic photography was done well. The story itself didn't go with the realism of the photos. Tillie is a hen who lays eggs in strange places (like a dustpan). Also, the names of the chickens were a bit dated, I think kids would connect more to things they are familiar with. Looking for the egg is fun, but not very engaging after that.

The kids enjoyed looking for the egg, but I think the story was not written super kid-friendly. It was fun to read at storytime, b/c i had a bunch of eager beavers sitting so close to me that i could hardly hold the book up in the air.