This is an absolutely hilarious re-telling of Chicken Little, perfect for lovers of fractured fairy tales or for anyone looking for a great read-aloud for kids from 4 to 8. Older children will also enjoy the quirky humor and comical drawings. In this story, a very small chicken on a teeny little far... more

This is an absolutely hilarious re-telling of Chicken Little, perfect for lovers of fractured fairy tales or for anyone looking for a great read-aloud for kids from 4 to 8. Older children will also enjoy the quirky humor and comical drawings. In this story, a very small chicken on a teeny little farm, in an itty-bitty coop, lays a humongous egg, from which pops a humongous chick. The not-too-bright chickens in the coop don't know what it is, thinking it might be an elephant, a squirrel, an umbrella, or even a sweater. The big chick, however, saves them from one calamity after another, from falling acorns, rain and wind. But when a crafty fox steals all their eggs, only the big humongous chick can save the day. The chickens finally decide that only one thing could be "so smart, so kind, so warm, and so brave--a chicken, of course. This book hits the same funny bones as The Stupids series, the Dumb Bunnies, or Scieszka's Stinky Cheese Man and other stories. Even my 14-year-old thought it was "brilliant." The design of this book is also worthy of comment. author/illustrator uses some elements of graphic novels, including speech bubbles, and panels. The illustrations, rendered, according to the book, in "chicken scratch (pencil and pixels) are done with a muted palette that gives the pictures an old-fashioned look, but that style contrasts with the cartoon-like drawings and the very funny expressions on the different characters' faces. Even the back cover continues the fun, with a comic strip where the various chickens complain about being on the back cover, where it's lonely, and wonder about going back to the front to start over. This book is a must have for the story collection of schools and libraries, and I would highly recommend it as well for teachers' own classroom collections, for a rainy day when they need to pull out a really fun book for storytime.