Cover of The Pinkish, Purplish, Bluish Egg
First published
1963
Editions
1 edition
Status
In print
OTHER COVERS
Back Cover (First Edition) cover of The Pinkish, Purplish, Bluish Egg
Back Cover (First Edition)
Cloth Board Binding cover of The Pinkish, Purplish, Bluish Egg
Cloth Board Binding
A PICTURE BOOK BY BILL PEET

The Pinkish, Purplish, Bluish Egg

A gentle turtledove named Myrtle finds a strange, brightly colored egg and, ignoring the doubts of all the other birds, patiently hatches it, only to discover a baby griffin inside.

OPENING LINES

"Soon all sorts of birds began flocking around To see the big egg that Myrtle had found, Blue jays and redbirds and noisy magpies And a big stuffy owl who was worldly and wise. 'It won't hatch,' said the owl. 'That egg is stone-cold. Why for all we know it's a thousand years old.'"

WHY HE WROTE IT: IN THE FAMILY'S WORDS

Bill Peet recalled the slow gestation of the idea in an interview: "Drew the egg, colored it pinkish purplish bluish, and printed the title under it, and then wondered for a few years what could be in the egg. I thought at first there might be a dragon in the egg, but then I thought, well, there have been so many dragon stories and I thought I could find something a little different. Finally I decided it would be a griffin." He later did write a dragon story, How Droofus the Dragon Lost His Head, and a sea serpent tale, Cyrus the Unsinkable Sea Serpent.

birds faith patience belonging mythical-creatures

From the book

Foxes scatter as the pack howls beneath the tree
Foxes scatter as the pack howls beneath the tree
The birds gather around the pinkish, purplish, bluish egg
The birds gather around the pinkish, purplish, bluish egg
The wise old owl and the newly hatched Zeke
The wise old owl and the newly hatched Zeke
Zeke the griffin perched in his tree
Zeke the griffin perched in his tree
Zeke the griffin takes flight
Zeke the griffin takes flight
The foxes and wolves gather on the rocks
The foxes and wolves gather on the rocks

Preliminary sketches

Rough draft of baby Zeke
Rough draft of baby Zeke
The pinkish, purplish, bluish egg
The pinkish, purplish, bluish egg
A flying lesson: illustration
A flying lesson: illustration
Bill Peet's signed inscription in a 1963 first edition of The Pinkish, Purplish, Bluish Egg
Bill Peet's signed inscription in a 1963 first edition of The Pinkish, Purplish, Bluish Egg

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