The Talking Eggs

The Talking Eggs
By Robert D. San Souci
Pictures by Jerry Pinkney
Book illustrated by Jerry Pinkney category

This book retells the Creole folktale of two sisters: one good and one bad. The bad sister (Rose) is just like her mother, mean and lazy. The good sister (Blanche) is the opposite, kind and hard working. Both of them meet an old woman (separately) who possesses many magical items such as talking eggs. Blanche is rewarded with many wonderful treasures from inside the eggs given to her by the old woman since she obeys her. Rose gets a more deserving treasure from inside her eggs - snakes and wild animals for being greedy, rude and not following directions.

I liked this book not only because it is a great story with colorful detailed illustrations, but because it also teaches the lesson that goodness will be rewarded and badness will be punished.

My positive reaction to this book is probably due to the fact that it is very similar to other stories that I have heard when I was young such as “Two Gals” (a story told to me by my Appalachian grandparents) and Cinderella. Both of these stories have good and bad characters that get what they deserve in the end.

Jerry Pinkney’s illustrations in this book are almost identical to the ones that he did in John Henry. The very detailed, colorful, watercolor like pictures adds greatly to the overall enjoyment of the book. Every time I look through this book I see some detail in the illustrations that I missed before.

The new thing that I learned about children’s literature after reading this book and John Henry was that sometimes the illustrations can be the one thing that makes an old story seem new again.