The Last Egg
Sofie Laguna and Jess Racklyeft
Allen & Unwin

One day as a Mother Bird sits on the nest, she tells Father Bird that the eggs within are soon to hatch. That night she’s woken by a screeching sound and the following morning there’s a fourth egg in the nest. Despite Father Bird’s doubts, Mother Bird insists that they must now take care of that one too, so they do. After some days the eggs start to hatch – one, two three. The parent birds teach the chicks how to feed themselves, how to sing and how to fly; but the fourth egg remains an egg as the days become colder and the time to fly to somewhere warmer approaches. “All eggs hatch,” Mother Bird assures Father Bird. When the three fledglings are able to care for themselves, Mother and Father Bird know they must remain until that final egg hatches and they start to struggle as the days shorten, becoming ever colder.

Then the day comes when Father Bird is too weak to fly and the two, their wings covered in ice, sit silent over the egg. That same night the egg finally hatches and Mother Bird comes face to face with the newborn creature. That is when something unexpected and amazing happens …

A truly heartwarming story of love, commitment and revelation with a fantastical ending, beautifully illustrated in watercolour and collage by Jess Racklyeft.