A. H. Benjamin

I don't know what kind of traditional American farm buys a kangaroo, but this one did and it turned the animals' lives inside out and upside down as they worried over being replaced by this mysterious new creature. I hate to get all political in one of these reviews, but I see correlations between this and the immigration issue here. I wonder if that was intended by the author. That seems like a heavy topic for a children's story, I know, but I just thought I'd throw it out there because show more that thought ran through my head as I read. This is a nice story. Not bad at all. show less

Sparse text, but an excellent example of irony: the mouse complains of his bad luck, while the audience knows how he has actually escaped death along the way home. I'd love to moralize at the parallel of our lives and God's sovereignty, but I've so far restrained myself. It's a fun story.

The book "Hens Don't Crow!" is cute and funny. The barnyard was all out of sorts because they heard the Rooster was sick so the Hen was going to wake them up in the morning. All the animals were in an uproar wondering how the Hen was going to crow because they knew she couldn't. Throughout the entire book, I thought the Hen was going to prove all the barn animals wrong and crow somehow, but it ended on a funny note when the Hen just said "Don't be Silly, hens don't crow." I also appreciated show more that this book provided 7 next steps to engage or continue the story with students or your children. show less

Delightful.  Little children need to appreciate that whining about a bad day is ineffective and annoying, and this is such a fun way to learn the lesson of the title.  The 'worse' thing is always being almost eaten by a predatory animal, but those parts of the story are shown through comical illustrations, not spelled out in words, so the young reader will giggle proudly each time he sees the hawk, snake, etc. get stymied and the mouse walk away clueless.