Help me find this book I remember from my childhood, episode 4395812...

February 13, 2013 7:34 PM

Trying to remember the name of a book from my childhood. It was a colorful kids book of short stories that included one about an egg named Percy who sat out in the sun too long.

The book was an illustrated, large-format (maybe 8"x11" or so) collection of short stories, probably geared toward kids age 8 or younger. Both the cover and the illustrations were very colorful, and I think the cover had a bright red border. One story was about a lazy, chubby egg named Percy who sat out in the sun too long (possibly at the beach.) It's possible I'm mixing up details from more than one story and Percy wasn't actually an egg or was an egg but did something else "lazy" other than sitting out in the sun for too long.

It was written in the 1980s or earlier (though from what I remember of the style, probably not before 1960 or so), possibly British (or maybe Australian or Kiwi.)

Any ideas?

posted by needs more cowbell to media & arts (5 answers total)

(And if it wasn't British/Australian/Kiwi, it was from the US.)
posted by needs more cowbell at 7:44 PM on February 13

Was the egg blue? Maybe with polka dots?
posted by latkes at 9:03 PM on February 13

No--it was a very human-seeming egg, nothing too trippy or fantasy-like other than being an egg. I think it wore pants.
posted by needs more cowbell at 9:27 PM on February 13

Was it "Three-Minute Bedtime Stories"? It has "The Unfortunate Eggsperience of Percy Prostlethwaite" by Norman Leaver, but it appears to be a story about Percy eating eggs.

There's a book on Amazon with the same title and a red border.
posted by derforsher at 11:25 AM on February 14

Ooh, I think that might be it. (I have vague memories of being puzzled about the term "egg-bound" in that context.) And, uh, not to spoil the story for anyone, but I think Percy might turn into an egg, or dream that he does.

Thanks!
posted by needs more cowbell at 8:46 PM on February 15