Hope is a chicken who happens upon an egg. Looking for a place to help raise it, a guardian red bird leads her to a chicken house full of chicken families. 

There she finds challenges and fear ultimately leading to the most precious gift she could ever hope for. 

The Rainbow Egg  is a beautifully illustrated, delightful fresh look at adoption as a loving gift.

Review :
I believe that for young children, and even some older ones too, it is usually much easier to explain difficult things in life
to them through stories.  One such story is The Rainbow Egg.

Author Linda Hendricks, M.D.  uses the story of Hope, a chicken who likes to live in the woods rather than in the chicken house.  One day she lays a beautiful rainbow egg but has no nest to put it in.  She tries many ways to take the egg with her as she wanders the woods, but all it does is make her tired.  She goes to the chicken house and meets a chicken couple who can not lay an egg of their own.  As the story continues a wonderful and magical thing occurs.

The story is one that shows one part of adoption, yet leaves the reader (adult and child) with many questions.  Why did Hope choose to keep living in the woods instead of building a nest for her egg/chick?  Why couldn't she just build a nest in the woods? Why did the red bird sing and make the chickens cry, how was that important to the story or to adoption?  Do people give babies away if they don't have a house?  Why do the illustrations of the chickens look like "sickly stick birds" (according to my 7 yr old - they don't look like chickens - lol)  Other than the funny looking chickens, the illustrations are pretty good, the red bird and chicken house were well-drawn.

The story seems a bit too wordy to me and does not really explain adoption exactly but is more about not being prepared for a baby (egg/chick) so you give it away to someone who is prepared. I really didn't feel that it told a good story of what adoption really is.  Our family knows a few children who have been adopted and none of their stories are anything like this.  I personally would not read this book to young children to help explain what adoption is about.

Overall I would say I have mixed feelings about the story and would recommend you try a sample and see what you think.  This is just one reviewer's opinion and others may like it more or less than myself!

For more info on this book - check it out on Amazon:  The Rainbow Egg