Pip and Egg

Pip and Egg are best friends and they do everything together because they feel they are the same size and shape.  Then in the spring, Pip begins to grow roots and can’t move about any more.  It makes him rather sad, but Egg is very understanding and stays with her friend.  Together they play different kinds of games and watch the sunsets from their hill.  Then something really strange happens.  Egg appears one day as a small bird ‘with scruffy feathers that look like wet hair’.  It is Pip’s turn to be understanding now, and he suggests that Egg stay near him while they share jokes and stories.  When Egg’s feathers get longer and stronger, she flies up and up until Pip is only tiny down below; she explains that she must go off exploring now, which Pip understands even though he is sad.  Off she goes, far, far away, and ends up in a big city where there are lots of other birds, and it is only after a long time that she realises she is carrying an egg and there is nowhere she would rather be than with her best friend Pip.  Off she flies over mountain and dale, back to her friend, where she builds her nest in his strong tree and produces her own egg, and the best friends continue as before with their offspring of pips and eggs enjoying life together.  This is a lovely parable of the importance of life-long friends to us all, and also of nature reproducing itself naturally.  The illustrations are busy and of quite beautiful colours reflecting the beauty of nature itself.  A lovely story, but I did wonder quite how Egg herself hatched, as she had spent all her young time with Pip playing and enjoying freedom!