Keith Graves is kind of a brilliant guy. I mean he has written a story that's a great read-aloud and which had my two children and myself racing to the end to see what happens.
The story begins with an EGG BIG being laid. Out from it pops a really huge chick. He's so large in fact that the other chickens don't recognize what he is. They stand around using various modifiers that mean BIG until the Smallest Chicken, who isn't "the sharpest beak in the flock", exclaims that Big Chick must be an elephant.
The chickens then come to the conclusion that an elephant doesn't belong in a coop, and they shove him outside. Things might have gone badly from there except that the next day there's an incident with an acorn. The Smallest Chicken gets bonked on the head, panics, and sends the others running -- for don't ya know, the sky is falling. They are in a serious tizzy until Big Chick calmly points out that there's nothing wrong and that it's only an acorn falling from the tree, the way acorns do. Big Chick then announces that acorns are tasty, which is quite unfortunate because the silly chickens then conclude that Big Chick must be a squirrel. They do this because in their tiny little chicken minds they associate squirrels with acorns.
The rest of the book proceeds with similar hilarity as the chickens keep misidentifying a single act with a particular critter or item. Dryness with Umbrellas, Warmth with Sweaters, for example.
THE SKINNY:::
I really like that this isn't some vacuous story. There are actually some real good ideas to consider here.
After we read the book through twice in a row, we talked about where the chickens had gone wrong. That they had jumped to conclusions without enough information. It was an opportunity for me to give my 'scientific method' and 'logic' pitch. After which we talked about how we should give others a fair chance before labeling them based on how they look.
Don't worry though if your children are younger. Chicken Big is a great read-aloud and they'll enjoy it for the zany characters and fun artwork.
For teachers who want to add it to their classrooms, or parents looking for a book for their children to practice reading, Chicken Big is written at the 2.7 AR level.
Pam
Somewhere in the X-burbs
Somewhere in the X-burbs
- Accelerated Reading level : 2.7
- Hardcover: 40 pages
- Publisher: Chronicle Books (August 18, 2010)
- ISBN-10: 0811872378
- There is a peek-inside at Scribd
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