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6th out of 75 books
—
57 voters
The Enormous Egg
Young Nate Twitchell is surprised when one of the hens on his family farm lays a giant egg. After a painstaking wait, Nate is even more surprised when it hatches and out pops a baby triceratops that he names Uncle Beazley! But when Nate decides to keep the dino and raise it on his own, he has no idea what he's getting himself into. As Uncle Beazley grows, Nate and his fami...more
Paperback, 188 pages
Published
April 1st 1993
by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
(first published January 1st 1956)
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Jan 22, 2013
Koz
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Dinosaur Lovers
Shelves:
kidsbooksforadults
I remember reading this book when I was younger and thinking, "Holy Crap! You mean this is all I have to do to get a pet dinosaur??!!" And then I learned the definition of "fiction." I hate books.
Update 1/2013: Re-read this last week, and it's still fun. Also surprised to see that the Dinosaurs-->Birds thing was around in the 1950s.
Update 1/2013: Re-read this last week, and it's still fun. Also surprised to see that the Dinosaurs-->Birds thing was around in the 1950s.
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
A piece on NPR on guilty reading pleasures led me to re-read The Enormous Egg. As with so many things aimed at children, much of Butterworth’s commentary is way over their little heads. On the surface, this is a simple, very funny story about a farm family in Freedom, New Hampshire. One of their hens lays an enormous, funny looking egg. Nate is determined to do whatever it takes to hatch the egg. Since it is too big for the bemused hen to turn, he goes out to the barn every three hours to turn t...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
When I was a kid, The Enormous Egg was always lying around my house because it was my brother's favorite book. I never read it, but I did know that it was about a dinosaur. Fastforward a few decades, and I decided to pick up the book for my fourth grade class. What a fun read this was!
What I loved about this book:
1. It has a dinosaur--a real live triceratops!
2. Tension between country folk and city folk.
3. Stupid politicians who don't get the big picture.
4. Nerdy intellectual scientists who fig...more
What I loved about this book:
1. It has a dinosaur--a real live triceratops!
2. Tension between country folk and city folk.
3. Stupid politicians who don't get the big picture.
4. Nerdy intellectual scientists who fig...more
Yes, I know, this is a kids book and I am an adult, but I picked it up the other night and couldn't stop until I finished it. The Enormous Egg was probably my favorite book when I was growing up, so I really enjoyed going back to it and finding I still loved it. The storyline is simple but beautiful, the writing is concise yet evocative, the illustrations are gorgeous and the emotion is vivid. And all that for a story about a boy and a dinosaur!
Like I said before, the storyline is really simple...more
Like I said before, the storyline is really simple...more
Dinosaur for a pet! This book has been a favorite since I was young. It pretty much had me from the word go. DINOSAUR! For a PET!
Re-reading it as an adult I was amazed at how much is packed into such a small book. The plot moves quickly from one hurdle to the next. The author doesn't invest much energy in explaining how a Triceratops hatched from a chicken egg, but he does tackle a lot of practical and realistic concerns, including the media descending upon the farm, and trying to keep up with...more
Re-reading it as an adult I was amazed at how much is packed into such a small book. The plot moves quickly from one hurdle to the next. The author doesn't invest much energy in explaining how a Triceratops hatched from a chicken egg, but he does tackle a lot of practical and realistic concerns, including the media descending upon the farm, and trying to keep up with...more
Back in third or fourth grade, our teacher read The Enormous Egg to our class, and we loved it... enough so that, as a thirty-something, I picked up a copy for my own enjoyment. And, indeed, enjoyed it all over again. Then, just tonight, I read it for my six-year-old, and she absolutely loved it. I'm pleased to say that, as a New Hampshire resident, I've been to Freedom (all the towns mentioned in the book exist) -- I guess I was kind of expecting a big triceratops statue or something, and, alas...more
May 31, 2012
Melanie
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Shelves:
children-s-literature,
4th-grade,
5th-grade,
6th-grade,
humorous-stories,
dinosaurs,
science,
scientists,
families,
eggs,
new-hampshire
Nate Twitchell had no idea what to think when one of the family chickens appeared to lay an egg so large she could barely sit on it. She sat on it and sat on it, past the time that regular chicken eggs would have hatched, and still it didn't crack. Finally, one day, it began to crack. What came out was more amazing than Nate could have imagined: A baby Triceratops! Immediately this becomes big news in such a small town. Newspapers and tv reporters show up.
Meanwhile, the dinosaur grows and grows...more
Meanwhile, the dinosaur grows and grows...more
Just finished reading this chapter book to my 6 yr old daughter. This is the first chapter book she has been enthusiastic about reading through to the end. Usually if it is not about animals and girls (Preferably fairies or princesses) and the color pink she gets bored pretty quick.
I read this in elementary school around the same time as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It was one of my favorites then and is still today after reading it again 35 plus years later. I was not sure how it would...more
I read this in elementary school around the same time as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It was one of my favorites then and is still today after reading it again 35 plus years later. I was not sure how it would...more
This is a book that I gleaned much enjoyment from as a child. The thought of having a dinosaur hatch in my own backyard seemed to make perfect sense to me. The fact that it came from a chicken seemed perfectly reasonable. I don’t think anything else about the story mattered. Just that there was a dinosaur and I could spend hours imagining having my own dinosaur that I could ride around and talk to.
The story is somewhat weakened now by a number of factors. The most glaring of all is the fact that...more
The story is somewhat weakened now by a number of factors. The most glaring of all is the fact that...more
I picked up this book at a garage sale for a quarter. A children's book, written in 1956, it tells the tale of an egg laid by an ordinary hen, which turns out to be a dinosaur egg. The dinosaur, which I need not remind you, hasn't been seen in millions of years on earth, hatches and .. well, I don't want to spoil the story. The writing, for having been written in 1956, sometimes feels old-fashioned, but it kept my attention throughout. I was truly interested to realize the situations described -...more
The plot isn't complicated. The tale isn't overwhelming. It simply is a story of a boy who has a pet...a large pet..a baby dinosaur hatched from an egg of his family hen.
Uncle Beazley grows at rapid pace, leaving Nat Twitchell to realize that he can no longer accommodate his friendly pal the triceratops.
With a wonderful friend who is a paleontologist, searching for a home for Uncle Beazley, they travel first to the National Museum in Washington, DC and then to the National Zoo.
A boy, a pet, a fr...more
Fun and funny fantasy about a chicken laying a dinosaur egg on a small farm in Freedom, New Hampshire. There were a few times when I scratched my head and said, this is implausible only to remind myself: it's a story about a hen laying a dinosaur egg! Once the protagonist gets to Washington he encounters an idiot Senator I thought at first to have been drawn too broadly - too much of a fool. Then I heard Rep. Michelle Bachmann and a few others on the news and realized how spot on Butterworth was...more
Nate Twitchell and his family are rather surprised when their hen lays an enormous egg. The hen faithfully incubates the egg with some help from Nate on the turning of it and the egg hatches. The egg contains a dinosaur. The climax of the story happens when a Senator in Washington D.C. makes this speech:
"Do we want our children to grow up to be forward-looking citizens of our forward looking country? Then we must not let them dwell on the useless creatures of the past, the foolish mistakes of Na...more
"Do we want our children to grow up to be forward-looking citizens of our forward looking country? Then we must not let them dwell on the useless creatures of the past, the foolish mistakes of Na...more
This was the first chapter book I ever read on my own. It was given to me by my first-grade teacher who realized that the Dick-and-Jane readers were not keeping my interest -- an unbelievable catch by a woman in charge of 70 six-year-olds! I credit this book with sparking my lifelong interest in paleontology and archaeology, as well as my love of the science fiction and fantasy genres. A great read-aloud book for fairly young children; simple and compelling for young readers, if a bit dated nowa...more
It's a great story to have kids read during an election season--shows exactly how arbitrary some law makers can be, and how persistence and speaking your mind can pay off.
I was a little concerned at one point with how Nate was manipulated by the paleontologist, even if it got him exactly what he wanted.
Overall, I'm a sucker for a book written in a local tone. Nate and his folks in Freedom, New Hampshire talk like they think--with all the "Well nows," and the, "I don't see as hows," and I just lo...more
I was a little concerned at one point with how Nate was manipulated by the paleontologist, even if it got him exactly what he wanted.
Overall, I'm a sucker for a book written in a local tone. Nate and his folks in Freedom, New Hampshire talk like they think--with all the "Well nows," and the, "I don't see as hows," and I just lo...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Perhaps it was unfortunate that I read about this pet triceratops in the same week modern scientists discovered that there never was such a dinosaur. Still it was fun to read about a time when paleontologists were just discovering that there were such things as dinosaurs and the public was still unsure, unaware and unconvinced about such things. My 3 year old today would have no trouble identifying a baby triceratops, or even telling you what a paleontologist is!
This book was very cute, and I actually liked it a lot!
My mom heard about this book on NPR. Somebody was talking about children's books that they really liked, and this was one of them. I put it on my list just to appease my mom, but I checked it out and was happily surprised. It was written in 1956, so it's a bit dates as far as vocabulary, but the story was fun and I think it would be a great read-aloud.
This was the story of a boy who has a dinosaur which hatches out of a massive chicken's egg...more
My mom heard about this book on NPR. Somebody was talking about children's books that they really liked, and this was one of them. I put it on my list just to appease my mom, but I checked it out and was happily surprised. It was written in 1956, so it's a bit dates as far as vocabulary, but the story was fun and I think it would be a great read-aloud.
This was the story of a boy who has a dinosaur which hatches out of a massive chicken's egg...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
I was doing some spring cleaning and pulled this book off the shelf and remembered how much I enjoyed reading it. It's very imaginative, humorous, and also pokes some fun at the government. I think it's just the idea of putting yourself in that position in which, as a kid, nothing is cooler than having a pet dinosaur. Great book that all kids should read at some point.
This is one of my favorite books from childhood. I probably read it for the first time in 3rd grade. I've been looking forward to reading it to my nephew, Antonio.
Antonio is sleeping over tonight (11 October 2008) and as he wound down, watching my Discovery Channel Shark Week discs (which I got with him in mind), he asked me to read The Enormous Egg to him.
There are pictures, but not many as far as a 5-year old is concerned (he turns 5 on the 25th). I began reading Nate Twitchell's story to him...more
Antonio is sleeping over tonight (11 October 2008) and as he wound down, watching my Discovery Channel Shark Week discs (which I got with him in mind), he asked me to read The Enormous Egg to him.
There are pictures, but not many as far as a 5-year old is concerned (he turns 5 on the 25th). I began reading Nate Twitchell's story to him...more
I really loved this book as a kid. I fondly remember it as one of the first 'long' books I read all by myself. Finishing it felt like a huge accomplishment at the time.
As for the story, it was sweet and engaging. Despite any descriptions of Uncle Beazley that may have been given in the book, I always insisted on picturing him as a Stegosaurus. My favorite :)
As for the story, it was sweet and engaging. Despite any descriptions of Uncle Beazley that may have been given in the book, I always insisted on picturing him as a Stegosaurus. My favorite :)
Summary: 12 year old Nate becomes the own of a pet triceratops when his hen lays a very large and unusual egg. He works with a palentologost to have take care of Uncle Beazely (the dinosaur) which ultimately take him to the National Museum in DC.
Written in the 1950s, it feels like a classic read that could be a great read aloud like Charlotte's Web.
Written in the 1950s, it feels like a classic read that could be a great read aloud like Charlotte's Web.
This was a really fun read, but my favorite part was near the end when the boy takes a trip to Washington D.C. The kids and I pulled out a map of the center of the city and followed him on his sight-seeing. There was also some really fun interaction with him and Congressmen and Senators (although very simplified of course) and we had a great discussion on how Congress works (even on more local levels) and how regular people can help change and impact lawmaking. Great read with the kids!
This really interested my fifth graders. They love the fight at the end to keep Uncle Beazley.
The Enormous Egg is great for picking out some tougher vocabulary and also talking about older times (when they used slugs for newspapers and operators that sent calls through to your phone). This is hard for these young kids to comprehend!
The Enormous Egg is great for picking out some tougher vocabulary and also talking about older times (when they used slugs for newspapers and operators that sent calls through to your phone). This is hard for these young kids to comprehend!
My husband read this book back in the day and said that I had to read it. I liked it, but it wasn't the best book I have ever read. I think boys would make a better connection to this book than girls although some girls may enjoy this story as well. Some of the details in the story are out of date due to the year of publication.
This wasone of my favorite books from my youth and in honor of the library's summer reading program I decided to re-read it this year. While it has lost a little of its meaning now that I am an old dude, it has lost none of charm. For all who like the story of a little boy and his dinosaur, this is the one.
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Butterworth was born in Hartford, Connecticut and spent much of his life as a teacher, teaching at Kent School in Kent, Connecticut from 1937 to 1947 and Junior School in West Hartford, Connecticut from 1947 to 1949. Additionally, beginning in 1947, he taught English at Hartford College for Women in Hartford, Connecticut until the late 1980s.
Butterworth was an author of many children's books, most...more
More about Oliver Butterworth...
Butterworth was an author of many children's books, most...more
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“A scientist doesn't know all the answers. Nobody does, not even teachers. But a scientist keeps on trying to find the answers.”
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Jul 08, 2009 10:04am