PICTURE BOOK - Sonya's Chickens by Phoebe Wahl

Illustrated by the author

2015, Tundra Books

32 pgs.

Goodreads rating: 3.96 - 339 ratings

My rating: 4

Endpapers: 

Illustrations: Watercolor, collage, and colored pencils 

My comments:  The illustrations drew me to pick up this book. Sonya is given three baby chicks to care for, which she lovingly does, as they grow into adults.  When one is killed by a fox, her dad explains to her that the fox only did so to feed his own children.  This is a great explanation of the life cycle and predator/prey without being too preachy, and includes a discussion-worthy "celebration" of the dead chicken's life.  Gentle ending - an egg hatches (another jumping off point for cycle of life discussions).

Goodreads: Sonya raises her three chickens from the time they are tiny chicks. She feeds them, shelters them and loves them. Everywhere Sonya goes, her chicks are peeping at her heels. Under her care, the chicks grow into hens and even give Sonya a wonderful gift: an egg! One night, Sonya hears noises coming from the chicken coop and discovers that one of her hens has disappeared. Where did the hen go? What happened to her? When Sonya discovers the answers, she learns some important truths about the interconnectedness of nature and the true joys and sorrows of caring for another creature.

What’s Cooking, Jamela? – Niki Daly

Illustrated by the author

2001, Farrar, Straus & Giroux

28 pages

HC $16.00

I’ve read many of Niki Daly’s books, but it wasn’t until this one that I realized he was a HE.  He lives in South Africa, where this story is set.

Endpapers:  Yellow with brush-stroked chikens running forward and backward.

Title Page:  Two-page spread of a city street, with Jamela and her mom walking happily.  Nice.

SETTING:  Contemporary South Africa in the days approaching Christmas.

1^st sentence/s:  “Gogo and Mama were maiking plans for Christmas.”

OSS:  Jamela raises a chicken that is to be the main part of Christmas dinner, but when it becomes a pet she goes to dire straits to make sure that “Christmas” does NOT become Christmas dinner.

Includes a GLOSSARY.

Illustrations:  Well….perhaps ink and colored pencil?  They’re lovely, showing South African life , I’m particularly fond of the fabrics of rich African cloths.

Beautiful Yetta, the Yiddish Chicken - Daniel Pinkwater

Illustrated by Jill Pinkwater
Feiwel and Friends (McMillan), 2010
32 pages
$16.99
Rating: 4.5
Endpapers: azure

Mr. Flegelman is taking his organic chickens to the city (which happens to be Brooklyn) to be sold. "The truck pulls up in front of Phil's Poultry World, and with a tear in his eye, Mr. Flegelman begins to unload the crates."

And now, the fun starts. When Mr. F. speaks, his words, "Good-bye, my dear chickens," appears in a talking cloud above his head. Then we see the line written in Hebrew and then the phonetic pronounciations of the Hebrew words. COOL!

Well, Yetta the chicken breaks free and takes off into the streets of Brooklyn. Freedom! Each time she speaks to herself, we can see the translations and pronounciation. Of course the pigeons she meet can only speak English...and they're mean. But when Yetta saves a bright green parrot from a cat, she is adopted by a flock of Brooklyn's wild parrots - and they speak Spanish! So everything they say is translated from Spanish, including the pronounciations!

Happy, happy ending to a very clever story. And there's an explanation of the Hebrew alphabet at the end of the book.

Chicken and Cat Clean Up - Sara Varon

Wordless
Scholastic, 2009
$16.99
44 pgs. ages 4-8
Rating: 3.5
Endpapers: thick green strips with encircled animal characters from the book

Chicken and Cat are two friends that live together. Chicken has decided to start a housecleaning business, and of course his friend Cat comes along to help out. But cat is tired, clumsy, and unsure of what to do, so he makes a lot of mistakes that have to be rectified. However, after they leave the apartment they are cleaning, he apprehends a mouse that has burgled a woman's purse, and thus becomes a hero.

Totally wordless. As I "read" it to Brendan, who's four, I had to explain what was going on in places, but he stayed interested and mesmerized througout the entire 44 pages. He talked about it later, so it was a hit! Very cute illustrations.

Chicken and Cat was written previously, this is their second adventure.