{"id":2298,"date":"2025-06-14T17:44:52","date_gmt":"2025-06-14T07:44:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.readingopensdoors.com.au\/?p=2298"},"modified":"2025-06-14T17:44:54","modified_gmt":"2025-06-14T07:44:54","slug":"the-last-egg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.readingopensdoors.com.au\/?p=2298","title":{"rendered":"The Last Egg"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.readingopensdoors.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/The-Last-Egg-cover-1024x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2299\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.readingopensdoors.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/The-Last-Egg-cover-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blog.readingopensdoors.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/The-Last-Egg-cover-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.readingopensdoors.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/The-Last-Egg-cover-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/blog.readingopensdoors.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/The-Last-Egg-cover-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blog.readingopensdoors.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/The-Last-Egg-cover.jpg 1240w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<div style=\"height:30px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Title<\/strong>:\u00a0<em>The Last Egg<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Author<\/strong>: Sofie Laguna<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Illustrator<\/strong>: Jess Racklyeft<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Publisher<\/strong>:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.allenandunwin.com\/\">Allen and Unwin<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Publication date<\/strong>: June 3, 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Themes<\/strong>: Birds, parenting, trust, resilience, love, courage, commitment, honour, dragons, discovery, community<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Comprehensive teachers\u2019 notes\u00a0<\/strong>are available on the Allen and Unwin website <a href=\"https:\/\/www.allenandunwin.com\/browse\/book\/Sofie-Laguna,-illustrated-by-Jess-Racklyeft-Last-Egg-9781761180330\">here<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:30px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The Last Egg<\/em> by Sofie Laguna, illustrated by Jess Racklyeft and published by Allen and Unwin is a captivating and heartwarming story about family, biological and non-biological, loyalty, a mother\u2019s intuition, diversity, compassion, discovery, sacrifice and community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:30px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Mother Bird spends her days protecting her three eggs in the nest, ensuring healthy chicks hatch, while Father Bird takes good care of Mother Bird. One morning, Mother Bird wakes and is astonished to discover an additional egg, larger than her three, in the nest. Without question she knows what she and Father Bird must do. This is now their egg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:30px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The three chicks hatch and with their parents\u2019 guidance learn survival skills. The cooler temperatures and changing seasons indicate it is nearly time for the chicks to migrate to warmer shores. \u00a0However, the last egg has not yet hatched.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:30px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Mother Bird does not know when the egg will hatch, yet she is steadfast in her commitment to not abandon it. With this uncertainty comes trials, including saying goodbye to her precious chicks, assuring them she will reunite with them when the egg hatches and a bitterly cold winter she and Father Bird endure. Amidst this challenging time when despair and pessimism could have dominated, together Mother and Father Bird demonstrate hope, patience and unwavering commitment to each other and the last egg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:30px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Readers will be delighted to witness the fourth egg hatching and surprised to see the addition the family. This new baby has its own skills and behaviours, while different to the birds, brings everyone together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:30px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Jess Racklyeft\u2019s imaginative, evocative, playful illustrations with touches of whimsy, capture the different seasons and passing of time with varied colour palettes to reflect spring, winter and summer. She superbly brings to life the bonds between the characters and the emotions they feel. Jess imaginatively uses colour to create suspense, drama and intrigue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:30px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>This is a book for all library collections which offers endless opportunities for discussions about family, acceptance, compassions, the spirt of community and strength in diversity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Title:\u00a0The Last Egg Author: Sofie Laguna Illustrator: Jess Racklyeft Publisher:\u00a0Allen and Unwin Publication date: June 3, 2025 Themes: Birds, parenting, trust, resilience, love, courage, commitment, honour, dragons, discovery, community Comprehensive teachers\u2019 notes\u00a0are available on the Allen and Unwin website here The Last Egg by Sofie Laguna, illustrated by Jess Racklyeft and published by Allen and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2299,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[104,437,14,30,439,438,436,434,22,31,435],"book-category":[249,440,360,277,441,313,433],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.6 - 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