Recently my family and I vacationed on the island of Kauai. We enjoyed the beach, admired the palm trees and the orchids, and we ate lots of seafood. We also were amazed to discover that the island is overrun with feral chickens. Truly. Everywhere you go there are wild chickens pecking for food, walking around, and crowing. The cocks seem to have to sense of time, so they crow all day long. Having dogged chickens for ten days, it seemed fitting to review a book about a very large chicken who has a unique problem. If you need a little humor in your life, then this is the book for you.
Keith Graves
Picture Book
For ages 5 to 8
Chronicle Books, 2010, 978-0-8118-7237-9
One day a chicken that lives in an “itty-bitty” coop on a “teeny” farm lays an absolutely enormous egg, and when the egg hatches an enormous chick pops out. None of the chickens in the coop know what the chick is. Then one not very bright chicken suggests that the chick is an elephant, and all the chickens decided that the “indoor elephant” is much too big to live in the coop. The poor chick is forced to leave the coop and he thinks about how he doesn’t “feel like an elephant.”
The humongous chick soon learns that the chickens are not very clever at all. In turn, they think that the humongous chick is a squirrel, an umbrella, and a sweater. They simply cannot understand that the chick is actually a chick, albeit a very very large one. How is the humongous chick going to show the chickens that he is actually one of them?
Young readers are sure to enjoy this loud-out-loud funny picture book with its often ridiculous characters and its unique artwork. They will find it hard to resist the gargantuan chick who wants so much to be recognized for what he really is.
No comments:
Post a Comment