Egg Marks The Spot is intelligent storytelling for young readers

What if the book DNA from Indiana Jones and Frog and Toad were magically strewn together? It would be a rollicking adventure that followed two friends as they went about their quest for a relic, or perhaps a rock. But, we’d also need to include lots of intelligent banter between the friends that are on par with an age-appropriate Sherlock. Egg Marks The Spot is a Skunk and Badger Story and is very close to fulfilling that order. The result is the second book in a series that’s smarter than most kids are used to reading, that’s partnered with more action than you’d expect from a skunk and a badger.

Badger and skunk live together. Badger loves rocks. Skunk wants to review books. Badger has a wall of rocks arranged alphabetically from B to Z. His ‘A’ rock is missing because it was stolen, pilfered by his cousin. Skunk’s passion is more literary and he’s just received a letter from the New Yak Times Book Review. Their editor would like to come by to talk, but before that happens the two are off on a trek to find Badger’s missing rock, the agate.

The two friends must pack for their trip. Despite the compact size of the two, they’re capable of carrying a massive amount of stuff. Granted, part of that is completely due to rock excavating equipment, plus a lot of cooking equipment and food. Badgers are very hungry animals indeed.

They also have a good memory. Badger remembers that he found his agate rock near tent #5, but once they get there a greater danger lies in wait. His cousin has found the campground too, but since he’s already stolen his agate rock why is he there now? There are lots of other variables in Egg Marks The Spot including a chicken named Augusta, lots of other chickens and rats, countless amounts of rats with pickaxes and other mining equipment.

It is the unexpected in the book that makes it so much fun to read. Kids will appreciate the genuine twists that it puts forth. Egg Marks The Spot tells a strange story in an earnest and old-school manner. It’s loaded with detail and has an intelligence about it that one rarely sees in a book intended for grades four and up. The book is not inapproachable or snooty, it’s not that kind of smart. The characters in the book are just themselves, one happens to be very passionate about rocks and one likes a newspaper. It’s their easy-going friendship, and the journey that they go on that will groove the book into the minds of young readers.

Some reluctant readers will need to get past a couple of the scientific names for the rocks that Badger goes through in the beginning. Don’t let those couple of words throw you off of the book. This is a book that grins as you read it and will keep ages nine and up smiling as they finish a book that they can call their own.

Egg Marks The Spot is a Skunk and Badger Book, it’s by Amy Timberlake with illustrations by Jon Klassen and available on Algonquin Young Readers, an imprint of Workman.

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