Oona Finds an Egg

Eager for a pet, Oona Oodlethunk, the prehistoric narrator of this gleefully ana- chronistic series opener, brings home an enormous abandoned egg and dotingly cares for it, despite not knowing what’s inside. “It’s going to hatch into Something Cute,” she tells herself, while worrying that it could be anything from a fossil to a giant raptor. (True, our prehistoric forebears didn’t coexist with dinosaurs, but neither did they have names like Allison and Dave, as best we know.) Oona’s forward-thinking parents (her mother is designing an ad campaign for the wheel while her father experiments in the kitchen) help with egg care, but when bully Bruce Brute decides he wants the egg, things get tricky. An author’s note explains Griffin’s (The Unfinished Life of Addison Stone) mixing of fact and fiction, while Wu’s decidedly Flinstonian artwork—a mix of single- and double-page scenes, as well as comics sequences—adds to the fun. While millennia may separate Oona from today’s readers, they should have no trouble relating to her struggles with sibling rivalry, troublesome bullies, and finding the perfect pet. Ages 8–12. [em]Agent: Emily van Beek, Folio Literary Management. (Jan.) [/em]