THE MOST WONDERFUL EGG IN THE WORLD

by Helme Heine ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 23, 1983

Heine's handling of the old adage, ""Beauty is as beauty does,"" is likely once again to strike adults as witty--and send children looking for more solid fare. (The bona fide fables, for instance, of Leo Lionni.) Hens Dotty, Stalky, and Plumy quarrel about which of them is the most beautiful. The king, asked to decide, says ""what you can do is more important""--and promises to make the one who lays the most wonderful egg a princess. Dotty lays a perfectly shaped egg, Stalky lays a huge egg, and Plumy lays ""an egg that would be talked about for the next hundred years""--a square egg, with each side a different color. All three become princesses, stay the best of friends, and go ""on laying extraordinary eggs."" In the last filmy watercolor the king is propelling them in a gondola under an egg-shaped sun. A more typical vacant whimsy centers on a lollipop-shaped, pink-dotted tree--Heine's visual quotation of a child's stylized drawing--under which a tiny hen is laying her egg. It's a self-indulgent sort of amusement.

Pub Date: Oct. 23, 1983

ISBN: 0003675408

Page Count: -

Publisher: Atheneum

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1983

Categories: CHILDREN'S