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

In the old days, a widow has two daughters. Rose, the oldest, is mean while Blanche the youngest is kind. The family ran a farm where chickens were raised and beans and cotton were grown. The mother favored Rose more. Blanche did all the work like iron the clothes, cut the cotton, and string the beans while her mother and Rose sat on the porch in their rocking chairs while fanning themselves and having plans to one day move to the city and attend the balls there.

One hot day, the mother sent Blanche to obtain some water from the well. When she arrives there, Blanche meets an old woman who asks for some water to quench her thirst. Blanche gives her the water and she compliments her as she walks off.

When Blanche returned with the water, she was hollered at her mother and Rose for taking too long. To make matters worse, Rose finds that the water is warm and dumps it on the ground. Rose and her mother hit Blanche for her failure and she sadly runs off into the woods.

Blanche runs into the old woman again who learns about what happened. The old woman takes Blanche to her house to live with her for a while. The old woman led Blanche deep into the woods to her house as the tree branches opened up a path to it as she advises her not to laugh at anything. 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. Blanche does not laugh at the two-headed cow or the multi-colored chickens.

When they got inside the cabin, Blanche lit the fire for the old woman in order to cook them some dinner. As she went to get firewood, the old woman removed her head in order to brush her two long braids. After putting her head back on, she gave Blanche a beef bone to put in the pot which soon filled with stew. When Blanche was given a single grain of rice to grain, the mortar overflowed with rice.

Later that night, Blanche and the old woman sat on the steps as they watched as male and female rabbits in different clothes came out and danced for them. The male rabbits wore frock-tailed coats and the female rabbits wore trail-train dresses. Blanche started to fall asleep as the old woman carried her in to the cabin.

The next morning, Blanche went to milk the two-headed cow which gave her the sweetest milk. Before sending Blanche home, the old woman took her to the chicken house. She tells her to take the eggs that quote "take me" and to evade 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. Blanche knew the difference between the eggs as the plain ones quote "take me" and the fancy-looking ones quote "don't take me." Once that was done, Blanche said goodbye to the old woman and left.

When Blanche gets close to home, she throws the eggs over her shoulders. Wonderful things come out of them like rubies, diamonds, gold, silver coins, pretty silk dresses, satin shoes, a handsome carriage, and a fine brown and white pony to pull the carriage. Blanche loaded the stuff into the carriage and rode the rest of the way home.

When Blanche finally got home, her mother and sister were surprised at what she has. Her mother wondered where she got the stuff as she has Rose help to carry the stuff inside. That evening, the mother cooked dinner for the first time since Blanche was old enough to hold a skillet. While starting to act positive towards Blanche, the mother asked where the old woman who gave her the stuff lives. When Blanche is asleep, 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 afterwards and keep everything for herself while planning to move to the city. When Rose asks why they can't run Blanche off tonight, the mother states that there is not enough for the two of them and to do as she says.

The next morning, Rose wandered the woods until she ran into the old woman. After mentioning that she is Blanche's sister, Rose asks the old woman to take her to her cabin. The old woman states that she can in exchange that she doesn't laugh at anything. When they arrive, Rose starts to do the opposite that Blanche did where she laughed at the two-headed cow and the multi-colored chickens. The old woman starts to shake her head in disappointment. Then she started to doubt the meat bone and rice trick as Rose went to bed hungry. The next morning, Rose was told to milk the two-headed cow. She still made fun of it and got sour milk as a result. They had to have coffee without cream. When the old woman took off her head to brush her hair, Rose grabbed the head and demanded that she give her the presents that Blanche got. While calling her a wicked girl, she gives Rose the instructions on which eggs to take from the chicken house. After putting the old woman's head on the porch leaving her body groping around the cabin, Rose went to the chicken house and disobeyed the advice not to take the eggs which quote "Don't take me" and ran off into the woods with them.

As soon as she was far from the old woman's cabin, she tossed the eggs over her shoulders and out emerged whip snakes, toads, frogs, yellowjackets, and a big old gray wolf. They began to chase Rose who ran all the way home. When the mother found Rose being chased by the creatures, she grabbed a broom in an attempt to fight them off. It didn't work as the creatures chased Rose and her mother into the woods.

By the time they returned home angry, sore, stung, and covered with mud, Rose and her mother found that Blanche had left for the city to live like a grand lady. Blanche remained kind and generous as always. For the rest of their lives, Rose and her mother have not been able to find the old woman's cabin and the talking eggs. They were unable to find that place again.

Characters

• Blanche: the youngest daughter, she's sweet, kind and gentle. She's sharp as forty crickets.
• Rose: the oldest daughter, she's cruel, selfish and mean.
• The mother: Rose and Blanche's mother. She's cruel and bad-tempered; she 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