The Egg Tree

The Egg Tree

Author	Katherine Milhous
Illustrator	Katherine Milhous
Country	United States
Genre	Children's picture book
Publisher	Scribner
Publication date	1950
ISBN	0-689-71568-4
OCLC	23733701
Dewey Decimal	[E] 20
LC Class	PZ7.M596 Ef 1992

The Egg Tree is a 1950 book by Katherine Milhous that won the 1951 Caldecott Medal,^[1] based on the author's family tradition. It tells the classic tale of a Pennsylvania Dutch Easter, with its main characters being Katy and Carl. One day, near Easter, they look for Easter eggs and found eggs that their grandmother had painted on a tree. They were interested, so they ask their grandmother about the eggs. They eventually create one, and it becomes a big success the next Easter.

Description

The book "The egg tree" is an illustrated book, with the image of a rooster blowing a horn standing on an decorated Easter egg on the cover of the book. Bright colors yellow in contrast with green. The illustration goes on thru the pages with a Pennsylvania Dutch traditions of art that is really eye pleasing and easy to read.

Plot

The book "The egg tree" tells the history of two little kids named, Katy and Carl they are going to their grandmothers farm in Red Hills of Pennsylvania, this is the first time the kids have the opportunity to spend Easter with their relatives from this part of the country, so they get to meet four of their cousins, the next morning the kids wake up early to participate on the Easter egg hunt. Katy seems to have some trouble finding the eggs in this new and unexplored environment, so she decides to explore inside the house, in the attic looking around Katy find six beautifully painted eggs that she takes to her grandmother immediately, the grandmother express her joy by saying "Katy may not have found the most eggs, she found the most beautiful eggs". so then the grandmother decides to decorated a tree with the eggs using them as a kind of ornaments, all the kids get inspired because of Katy discovering and grandmothers joy so they all decided to put especial emphasis on their own decoration of the eggs and they decorated a really big tree, and they next year one even bigger.

Reception

Kirkus Reviews wrote "This happy tale ... is enlivened by bright four colored illustrations and black and white decorations as spontaneous and colorful as a sunburst. The story is simple and charming"^[2] while Horn Book stated "Librarians and teachers will give a warm welcome" and concluded "Katherine Milhous’ illustrations are some of her best."^[3]

References

1. American Library Association: Caldecott Medal Winners, 1938 - Present. URL accessed 27 May 2009.
2. "The Egg Tree". www.kirkusreviews.com. Kirkus Media LLC. Retrieved 14 June 2015.
3. "Horn Book reviews of Caldecott Medal winners, 1950-1959". www.hbook.com. Media Source. Retrieved 4 July 2015.