Out of the Egg by Tina Matthews Grades K-3 32 pages Houghton Mifflin March 2007 Hardcover     The classic story of the Little Red Hen gets a cute twist in Out of the Egg by Tina Matthews. Everyone remembers the story of the hen who couldn’t get her lazy animal counterparts to help her, but this time the Hen herself gets a lesson in generosity of spirit - and forgiveness - from the unlikeliest of places. With spare, bouncy text and stark line drawings using minimal color, Matthews presents our Red Hen, once again asking for some planting help from Fat Cat, Dirty Rat and Greedy Pig. But of course, they refuse to help. When the tables are turned, Red Hen is about to punish her neighbors until a little voice of wisdom gives her another option. Matthews writes and illustrates children’s books from her home in Australia, and Out of the Egg will delight young children, even as it teaches them an important lesson about taking the moral high road.   web reviews   Marie D. Jones/2007 for curled up with a good kid's book   For grown-up fiction, nonfiction and speculative fiction book reviews, visit our sister site Curled Up With a Good Book (www.curledup.com)