Out of the Egg (Hardcover)
Description
You think you know the tale of the Little Red Hen. You think you know how it ends. But in this story everything changes when the hard-working Red Hen lays a perfect white egg. And out of this egg comes a chick with a mind of her own . . .
Here is a beautiful book with fantastic woodcut prints and lyrical text that turns the tale of the Little Red Hen upside down. In classic fashion, it is the noble Red Hen who does all the work, but Red Hen’s chick, in an arresting and charming manner, chooses not to follow her mother’s tradition of exclusivity.
About the Author
Tina Matthews was born in Wellington, New Zealand, and over the years has worked as a puppet maker, a bass player, a teacher, and an artist and designer. She now lives with her family in Sydney, Australia, where she writes and illustrates books for children and plants green seeds whenever she can find them.
Praise for Out of the Egg…
"Little Red Hen" repurposed. This gritty, sharply graphic woodcut version of the time-honored tale sets our feathered friend and her slothful sidekicks squarely in the present. . . . Matthew's hand-painted Japanese woodblock illustrations, black and white and red all over--with, of course, an important touch of green--are striking editorial panoramas that give readers a sense of the tension (and the undeniable connection) between city and country, between environmentalism and careless consumerism, and between egotism and the greater good.
School Library Journal
Offers unusual visual impact, as well as a gentle suggestion that children are not culpable for the sins of their parents. . . . Opening scenes of a junk-strewn industrial wasteland that is transformed by the end into grassy, rolling hills add an environmental subtext to this seemingly simple yet multilayered import.
Kirkus Reviews
The elegance of the artistic style, with its delicate patterning and austere outlines, provides amusing contrast in the depictions of the going-to-pot mammals and attractive scenes of the industrious hen. Young listeners may enjoy comparing this to the original and discussing the difference, or they may just appreciate a story about somebody who decided that lightening up and sharing unilaterally made for a better life.
Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
The telling is spare and sprightly, and the story is all on the side of the young. The small, square trim size tidily frames black woodcut prints accented with red for the hen and green for her tree; the modest, prim tone is made mischievous by such details as the sight of Greedy Pig too busy vegging out in front of his flat screen TV to help a friend in need.
Horn Book
With spare, lyrical text and art, the author transforms a classic into a tale for our times.
New York Post
