The Talking Eggs (picture book)

The Talking Eggs: A Folktale from the American South

First edition
Author	Robert D. San Souci
Illustrator	Jerry Pinkney
Language	English
Genre	Children's picture book, folklore
Published	1989 (Dial Press)
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print (hardback)
Pages	32 (unpaginated)
ISBN	9780803706194
OCLC	18873666

The Talking Eggs: A Folktale from the American South is a 1989 children's picture book by Robert D. San Souci and illustrated by Jerry Pinkney. It is an adaption of a Creole folktale about a girl who is mistreated by her family, meets an old woman in the woods, and receives some eggs that contains treasures.

Plot

A widow has two daughters. Rose is the oldest and mean. Blanche is the youngest and kind. The mother favors Rose more and forces Blanche to do all the work while Rose and her mother sit on the porch and fantasize moving to the city.

One day, Blanche meets an old woman at the well who asks for some water to quench her thirst. Blanche gives her some water. This makes her late when bringing the water to her mother and sister. Blanche is scolded and beaten and she runs off into the woods where she meets the old woman again.

The old woman takes Blanche to her house to live with her for a while and advises her not to laugh at anything there. When they entered the old woman's property, Blanche finds that the old woman owns a two-headed cow with corkscrew-like horns that brayed like a mule. There was also multi-colored chickens that whistle like mockingbirds with some of them hopping around on one leg, some having three legs, and some having four legs. There, Blanche behaves well and follows the old woman's orders, which result in her receiving rewards through food where she throws a bone in a pot which produces soup and strikes a rice grain which produces rice. The day is closed out by a night dance from rabbits in clothes.

The next morning, Blanche milks the two-headed cow which produces sweet milk. Before sending Blanche home, the old woman takes her to the chicken house and tells her to take the eggs that say "take me" and to leave the eggs that say "don't take me". Once she is close to home, Blanche is instructed to throw them over her shoulder and she will get a surprise when the eggs break. When Blanche goes to do this, all of the plain eggs say "take me" and the fancy-looking ones say "don't take me." Obeying the old woman's instructions, Blanche takes all the plain eggs.

When Blanche gets close to home, she throws the eggs over her shoulders. To her surprise, gems, money, and dresses come out of them, along with a horse and carriage which she rides the rest of the way home.

When she arrives home, her mother and sister help Blanche carry the riches inside and pretend to show kindness towards her. That night, the mother instructs Rose to go into the woods the next morning and find the old woman in order to get the talking eggs. The mother plans to chase Blanche off afterward and keep everything for herself while planning to move to the city. At first, Rose wants to run off immediately but agrees to her mother's orders eventually.

Rose meets the old woman and is taken to her house, where she misbehaves, disobeys, and demands to be given the talking eggs. Eventually, the old woman gives Rose the instructions on which eggs to take from the chicken house. But Rose disobeys her and takes all the fancy-looking eggs which say "don't take me”.

Expecting to find the same riches her sister did, Rose is instead greeted with whip snakes, toads, frogs, yellowjackets, and a big old gray wolf that attack her. Rose tries to run back home to escape them, but they pursue and attack her. Rose's mother tries to fight them off with a broom only for the animals to chase them from the home and into the woods.

By the time they return home, albeit dirty, bruised, sore, and angry, they discover that Blanche has moved to the city with her new wealth and continues to be kind and generous. For the rest of their lives, Rose and her mother try to find the old woman's cabin and the talking eggs, but they can never find them again.

Characters

• Blanche - The youngest daughter is she's sweet, kind and gentle. She's sharp as forty crickets.
• Rose - The oldest daughter who is cruel, selfish and mean.
• The Mother - Rose and Blanche's mother. She's cruel, bad-tempered, and favors Rose more than Blanche.
• Old Woman - A magical elderly woman who lives on a magical farm.

Reception

Common Sense Media in its review of The Talking Eggs, wrote "Robert D. San Souci captures the reader's attention with simple language that brings the country setting to life: "They lived on a farm so poor, it looked like the tail end of bad luck." And Jerry Pinkney's watercolors convey the sharp contrast between Blanche's difficult home life and the hilarious celebration at the old woman's home."

Kirkus Reviews, wrote "A lively retelling of a rather hard-hearted Creole version of a widely collected folktale." and the School Library Journal called it "a unique contribution to the American folktale repertoire"

The Talking Eggs has also been reviewed by Publishers Weekly, and Booklist.

Awards

• 1989 Coretta Scott King Book Illustration Award - honor
• 1989 Irma Simonton Black Book Award - winner
• 1990 Caldecott Medal - honor