Illustrated by Jerry Pinkney
The Talking Eggs is about a little girl (Blanche) who works all the time for her mother and sister. She is a sweet and kind little girl, where her mother and sister were cross and mean. They treated Blanche very cruelly. One day Blanche met an old woman by the well. When Blanche ran away from the cruelty of her mother and sister, she met the old woman in the woods. The woman took Blanche to her farm deep in the woods, but warned her to not laugh at anything she saw. The farm and the woman were strange. The cow had two heads and corkscrew horns; the chickens had one or more legs and sounded like mockingbirds; the woman took her head off to comb and fix her hair; and the rabbits were dressed in human clothing and danced to banjo music played by one of the rabbits. Before Blanche left the old lady’s farm, she went to the chicken house to get eggs. She was to only take the ones that said “take me”. These eggs were going to make Blanche’s life better. She was to drop the eggs over her left shoulder before she reached her home. When she did this, things started to appear. Things like diamonds and rubies, gold and silver coins, silk dresses and satin shoes, and a handsome carriage and a pony. That night Blanche’s mother sent her sister, Rose to find the old woman to get some talking eggs and some riches of her own. Her mother planned to take Blanche’s things and her and Rose would go to the city and be grand ladies. Rose found the old lady, but Rose laughed at everything on the farm. Rose was even nasty to the old woman. When Rose was sent to the chicken house to gather only the eggs that said “take me”, she took the ones that said “don’t take me” because they were so beautiful. However, inside the beautiful eggs were snakes, toads, frogs, yellow jackets, and a big wolf. These creatures chased Rose and her mother into the woods. When they returned to their home, Blanche was gone. She went to the city to be a grand lady. This book reminded me of Cinderella and gives the message that kindness to others will be richly repaid. The illustrations in this book are wonderful and enhance the story with a perfect visual image of the story. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes to fantasize or who loves Cinderella stories.
Other books illustrated by Jerry Pickney include:
Rikki-tikki-tavi (authored)
The Ugly Duckling (authored)
Noah’s Ark (authored)
The Sunday Outing
Aesop’s Fables
The Jungle Book: The Mowgly Stories
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