about the book
Every chicken on the farm is great at laying eggs. They are all on a good schedule: Maud lays one every day. Dora lays one every other day. Nadine lays five, exactly five, every week. (Gloria is actually a rooster and so doesn’t lay any eggs.)
Everyone in the henhouse is efficient—except for P. Zonka. She doesn’t lay any eggs, and she is definitely not a rooster. What gives?
Zonka is a romantic. When asked why she never lays an egg, she replies, “Because of the pale mornings, the soft dark moss, the stripes on the crosuses, the orange cat with one blue eye, the shining center of a dandelion, the sky at midnight…” With all these beautiful things to go out and see, how can P. Zonka stop to take the time to lay an egg?
However, chickens lay eggs. P. Zonka has to lay one sometime. When she does, it is the most beautiful egg any in the henhouse have ever seen!
about the author/illustrator
Julie Paschkis was born in 1957 and grew up near Philadelphia in Pennsylvania.
As a child she was encouraged to read a lot by her parents, as well as to draw and play outside. She grew up and went to several different high- quality illustration schools: Germantown Friends School, Ringerike Folkenhogskole in Norway, Cornell University, and the School for American Craftsmen at RIT.
Julie’s usual medium is gouache on paper, using small brushes. She likes putting in a lot of detail for older readers.
With her husband, painter Joe Max Emminger, and their cat, Clementine, and dog, Lily, Julie lives in Seattle, Washington.
Source:
Author/Illustrator website
Author/Illustrator interview: Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast
Also illustrated by Julie Paschkis:
Flutter & Hum : Animal Poems = Aleteo y zumbidoo : Poemas de animals. Henry Holt & Company (BYR). 2015.
Apple Cake : A Recipe for Love. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2012.
Mooshka, a Quilt Story. Peachtree Publishers. 2012.
Pablo Neruda : Poet of the People by Monica Brown. Henry Holt. 2011.
Summer Birds : The Butterflies of Maria Merien by Margarita Engle. Henry Holt. 2010.
Building on Nature : The Life of Antoni Gaudi by Rachel Rodriguez. Henry Holt. 2009.
Imaginary Menagerie : A Book of Curious Creatures by Julie Larios. Harcourt Children’s Books. 2008.
Albert the Fix-It Man by Janet Lord. Peachtree. 2008.
The Great Smelly, Slobbery, Small-Tooth Dog by Margaret Read MacDonald. August House. 2007.
Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal : A Worldwide Cinderella by Paul Fleischman. Henry Holt. 2007.
Through Georgia’s Eyes by Rachel Rodriguez. Henry Holt. 2006.
read more!
Counting Chickens by Polly Alakija
Tobi’s pet is a hen. His friends have pets also, which give birth to their babies, starting with one calf, two lambs, three kids, four kittens, five puppies, and six piglets. Tobi’s hen is sitting on seven eggs. When will they hatch? And what will happen next year when Tobi has more chickens than he can count?
Emma’s Eggs by Margriet Ruurs
One day Emma, a chicken, peeks into the window of the kitchen and sees what was happening to her eggs. “Tok!” she cries. If that is how people want her eggs to be, then that is the way Emma will make them. However, when Emma produces scrambled eggs on her own, no one seems to want them. Well! If they don’t want them, Emma just won’t lay any more!
Mooshka, a Quilt Story by Julie Paschkis
Karla has a very special quilt she calls Mooshka, composed of different bits of fabric from many of her beloved family members. Mooshka is more than just a quilt, though. Mooshka can “talk.” At bedtime, Karla reads each square, or “schnitz,” which all together tell her stories about her ancestors. However, when Karla meets her baby sister Hannah, Mooshka refuses to speak anymore—not until Karla shares Mooshka with her sister.