The Talking Eggs, Robert D. San Souci, illus by Jerry Pinkney. ISBN: 0803706197
Read July 23, 2013
Picture Book: Classic fairy-tale story (Perrault's The Fairies,
also known as Diamonds and Toads, and Grimm's Mother Hulda) gets a
Creole makeover as this dynamic duo knocks another beautiful book out of
the park.
Blanche and Rose live a hard-knock life with their single mother
(although the life might be a bit less hard-knock if Rose and Mom
weren't slackers and harpies) until a chance encounter with a weird
old woman at the well leads sweet-tempered and hard-working Blanche into a
fortune - after a strange night requiring her to be respectful, gentle,
and hard-working.
When Blanche comes back home loaded, Rose is shoved out
the door to try her luck, and of course, fails miserably as she is
incapable of governing herself.
I would personally have preferred a Gullah rendition rather than
Creole, as I grew up in Charleston, but one can't have everything.
A really nice touch for me is that Blanche and the old
witchwoman share the same (beautiful traditional African) hairstyle,
while Rose and Mom have theirs down and loose in imitation of white
styles, trying to be "fancy ladies" in the big city.
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