Zinnia and Dot - Softcover

Ernst, Lisa Campbell

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140541993 ISBN 13: 9780140541991

Publisher: Puffin, 1995

Synopsis

Cooperation is the focus when two feuding hens lose all but one of their eggs to a weasel while squabbling, and the fun really begins when they begin to argue about whose egg it is, and what to do with it. Reprint.

About this title

From School Library Journal:

Kindergarten-Grade 3-- With flawless phrasing and lively art, Ernst returns to her theme of competition's drive (nearly) overcoming good judgment. Two hens have such pride in their eggs that it overshadows all sense of perspective and results in the theft, by a wily and opportunistic weasel, of all but one of the eggs. The remaining one then becomes the source of even more rancor until a pair of mourning doves persuades the feuding females to share the responsibility of sitting on it. They do, but with comic results that lead, after all, to a happy ending. As in Sam Johnson and the Blue Ribbon Quilt (Lothrop, 1983) and Miss Penny and Mr. Grubbs (Bradbury, 1991), Ernst makes her point, but ever so gently. The pastel-and-ink drawings, filled with shades of browns and blues suggestive of a henhouse, depict plump, proud hens whose facial expressions and ``feather language'' tell the tale as effectively as the words. A winning tale of a friendship that triumphs over vanity. --Jane Marino, White Plains Public Library, NY
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews:

Two feuding hens lose all but one egg to a weasel who sneaks in while they're busy squabbling. Now they really have something to fight about: Whose is the egg that's left? With poor grace, Dot and Zinnia squeeze together into one nest, brooding and maintaining ``an icy silence.'' Only after the weasel tries to eat them too, and they fight him off together, do they relax their antagonism and share their triumph--as well as the chick that hatches immediately thereafter (``He's gorgeous!...his feet look just like yours''). Only the subtly balanced colors (old straw, Plymouth Rock gray, Rhode Island red) are muted here; the brisk narrative and the vigorous pen strokes delineating the adamant hens are vibrant with action. A good choice to share with a group. (Picture book. 3-8) -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Puffin
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0140541993
• ISBN 13: 9780140541991
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 32