Book Review: Interrupting Chicken

Book #38

Book Image:

Bibliographic Citation:

Interrupting Chicken.
By David Ezra Stein. Illus. by author.

2010. 40p. Candlewick, $16.99. (9780763641689)

Age Group:

Preschool to Gr1 (Ages 4-6)

Genre:

Fiction

Awards:

2011 Caldecott Honor

Topics/Issues:

ELS promoted:

Print awareness, print motivation, narrative skills

Format:

Hardcover.

Author/Illustrator sites:

http://www.davidezra.com/

Categorization Tags:

E Stein

Annotation:

Little Red Chicken wants Papa to reader her a story before bedtime, but she interrupts him as soon as the story begins.

Reactions/Observations:

Little Red Chicken has to have a story before she goes to bed, but she can’t help but interrupt almost as soon as the story begins.  Papa Chicken reads to her with the promise that she’ll try to be good this time.  After three tries, he runs out of stories. Papa suggests that Little Red Chicken tell him a story, but like father like daughter he interrupts the story with his loud snoring.

This book is hilarious! It’s easy to become engaged with this playful story and its loveable characters. I have read this numerous times in story time and performed it as a puppet show.  The stories mentioned are classics which allow even young readers to point out that Little Red Chicken’s ending is not the right one! The illustrations are fun and bold. Each image creatively uses the text, book (to depict a bedtime storytelling), and character images to share Little Red Chicken’s energy and illustrate her comedic interruptions.  This book is great for promoting narrative skills and print awareness. The humor may be reaching more for the preschool end, but the humor is contagious and easily shared with younger children.