Big Chickens Fly the Coop Book

The four big chickens who were afraid of everything in their wellreceived debut, Big Chickens, are now feeling all cooped up, so they set off to find the farmhouse. But where, the hapless hens wonder, is it? First they find a doghouse (loud barking!); then they run into a tractor (ewww, dirty!); and then they stomp into the barn (wild horses!). Who knew the farmhouse was right under their beaks the whole time? Sidesplitting silliness abounds in this second riotously funny read-aloud by Leslie Helakoski, once again illustrated with Henry Cole's boisterous art.

Children's Literature

AGERANGE: Ages 4 to 8.

They have always wanted to see the farmhouse. So the four silly chickens of Big Chickens leave their coop and arrive at a structure. Since they do not really know what the farmhouse looks like, they wonder if this is it. It has a roof and a door, but also a tail, since it is the doghouse. Chickens and dogs clash is a series of rhymes like "flounced, trounced, and body-bounced and pounced." Back to the coop they run, figuring they should have stayed home. But still, they want to taste the bugs at the farmhouse. So off they go to similar unpleasant encounters at the tractor and in the barn. When they finally make it to the actual farmhouse, it is a riot of word-play fun, climaxing with the surprise that their coop is "right next door." So "Four slobbery, sooty, saddle-sore chickens strutted all the way home." Cole's comical paintings add visual fun to the verbal play. The quartet of anthropomorphic hens, each in a different dress and colored feathers, provides considerable slapstick action as each investigation results in minor mayhem. As they waddle back to their coop in the last scene, we wonder where their curiosity will take them next. Reviewer: Ken Marantz and Sylvia Marantz