Reviews: (by author)

Matthews, Tina. Out of the Egg. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2007. ISBN 0-618-73741-3.

Matthews is author and artist of this very funny book, an off-the-wall recounting of the Tale of the Little Red Hen. We know the story: the red hen works hard to grow some wheat to bake some bread, but she can’t get any help from her ne’er-do-well compatriots. So when the wheat is grown and ground by her and she finally gets to bake the bread, she doesn’t share it with the others. And this seems fitting.

Matthews’ version transfers the action from wheat to a tree seed that the hen single-wingedly cares for. The Fat Cat, the Dirty Rat, and the Greedy Pig are just as lazy and uncooperative as always, but here they’re depicted with rare verve, in a unique art style of red, black, and white—with an occasional touch of green and a lot of sly humor. For example, while the hen struggles to protect the small sapling in one scene, the Greedy Pig returns home with a bag of baguettes to the cat and rat waiting cozily for him inside their cottage.

The moral is different here, for beneath the tree the hen lays “a perfect white egg” which hatches into a lively little chick who wants to play under the tree with the kitten, the baby rat, and the little pig offspring of their notorious elders. But her mother won’t let her. Essentially, the chick then tells the mother not to carry the sins of the one generation unto the other. The red hen relents and indeed lets the innocent youngsters play together under the tree she labored to nurture. The last two pages hold a little surprise that’s especially enjoyable.

A. Allison, June 2007

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