Little Chicken's Big Day by Katie and Jerry Davis - SPECIAL GUEST REVIEW

My guest reviewer today - my very first guest reviewer, by the way, but I have a couple more lined up - is my colleague Christina, aka Dances With Chickens.

I give most of the real people in my life blogonyms when I mention them on the interpoops, partly because I love giving people nicknames and I'll use any excuse to do it, and partly because if they get pissed off at me I can say, "Er... whaddaya talking about? When I referred to 'my colleague Token Boy Librarian' I was talking about... uh... the other... boy librarian."

Anyway. Dances With Chickens is one of my favorite appellations. It's because she's from the vasty Great Plains, which makes me think of Costner's character in Dances With Wolves, and because she loves chickens. And then she got married and took her husband's name, which makes her Mrs. Miller, which was the name of one of our chickens.

Christina was hyperventilating about Katie Davis's new book before I even pulled it out of my bag, and she's still kind of walking around talking like a baby peep if a baby peep was a human librarian, so I just had to ask her to write the review. Here's what she says:

Admittedly, I am predisposed to liking books whose main characters are chickens, but I do have to say that I adore this book. I really like the simple, bright, bold colors in the illustration and especially love that Little Chicken's car seat looks like an egg. When Little Chicken becomes distracted, he finds himself a little lost. Fortunately, Big Chicken is only a cluck away. Not only does she help Little Chicken find his way, but she also ties his shoes.

 

Right? Give it up for Dances With Chickens!

Katie Davis's Who Hops? is one of the all-time toddler storytime classics. Bright and lively, it encourages participant reading. Little Chicken, which is even simpler, joins that book. There's something very Zen about Little Chicken: the purest little 1-2-3 koan of a story, illustrated in the purest warm colors against a pure white background. Also, Little Chicken wears red Chucks, and as we all know, there is no shoe that is more essentially Shoe than red Chucks.

And there is one honey-pie of a trailer. Look, little fluffy peepers! Talking little fluffy peepers! Ok, maybe Christina's not the only person walking around talking like a peep.

Comments

[Katie Davis]

Jerry and I just got back from dinner out to find this incredible review! I wish you could've seen me jumping up and down in our kitchen when I read the line about Big Chicken tying Little Chicken's shoes, a detail I NEVER thought anyone would notice. This is absolutely delicious to me. And in all fairness, my Art Director, Deb Sftetsios, gets credit for that egg car seat!

Thank you so much for your Little Chicken love!

[:paula]

Katie, I am so glad you liked our review! Christina was literally all a-twitter about Little Chicken, and I am a big happy fan too - I know that it is NO WAY as easy as it looks to write a story as sweet and little and complete as this one... it's like the Incredible Edible Egg in picture book form. Although that's maybe a gruesome comparison given the subject matter... hmm!