The TTLG 2011 Picture Book Celebration: Book One hundred and one

Last year I reviewed a fantastic wordless book called The Chicken Thief., which was illustrated by Beatrice Rodriguez. Not surprisingly the book has been lauded by pundits in the children's book world, and it is much loved by countless children and their families. Today I have reviewed a new book featuring the fox and the hen that we met in The Chicken Thief, and I am delighted to say that it is a book that readers of all ages will enjoy.

Fox and Hen Together

Beatrice Rodriguez

Wordless Picture Book

For ages 4 and up

Enchanted Lion, 2011, 978-1-59270-109-4

   Crab, Fox, and Hen are living together very happily until one day when Fox discovers that the refrigerator is empty. Someone is going to have to get some food. Leaving Fox to tend her precious egg, Hen goes fishing, and Crab goes along to help. It isn’t long before Hen catches a very large fish indeed, but she does not get to enjoy her success for long because a huge bird swoops down and snatches up her catch, which is still attached to Hen’s fishing line.

   Hen may be a lot smaller than the enormous bird that stole her fish, but she is also very determined. Her family needs food and she is not going to let the big bird steal her fish. Grimly Hen hangs on to her fishing pole as she is dragged across the sea and then into the sky. Little does she know that her adventure is only just beginning.

   This is the second wordless book that Beatrice Rodriguez has created featuring Fox and Hen. Young readers will quickly fall in love with brave and stubborn Hen who never gives up. The ending to the story adds another twist to the tale, because when Hen gets home she discovers that something has happened to her egg in her absence.

   Readers of all ages are sure to love this clever, expressive, and thoroughly enjoyable story.