Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?

What happens when you take the quintessential riddle, the ur-joke of playgrounds nationwide, and give it to 14 illustrators to answer? This light-hearted assembly grants each illustrator a double-page spread to stretch out and let the answers flow in primarily visual punchlines. Some go for the silly, some the surreal, and others are just out for an afternoon picnic (literally).

As an adult reading this I found myself trying to determine whether each "answer" felt satisfying to me; I wanted to be shown all the possibilities that the question afforded. To that end I was satisfied that Mo Williams took the opportunity to give us a police interrogation where the poor chicken in the hot seat honestly doesn't have the answer. The he's being show more "grilled" is a great pun, with the additional image of an officer preparing coals for a barbecue as an inducement to underscore the joke-within-the-joke. Chris Raschka doubles up the riddle by having the Sphinx ask the chicken in reply "You tell me".

On the flip side, Jerry Pinkney's country picnic seems a bit too genteel and Mary Grandpre's Chagall-like dream collage sends out an ethereal fog horn that asks "What was the question again?" Not that either of the illustrations is anything less than the artists at their best, in fact they both are downright beautiful. But neither satisfactorily answers the title questions for me.

Somewhere on the fringes you have Jon Agee's thick outlined chicken oblivious to the stampede of people and vehicle attempting to outrun dinosaurs, while Harry Bliss' chicken at least knows enough to run from the zombie chickens.

Zombie chickens?

That's when I began to wonder how this book would be taken at a younger level. A young picture book reader is likely to enjoy the more literal responses -- like the two that are concerned with following traffic lights -- but might need to have the concepts of zombies and a police interrogation explained to them. Older readers who might enjoy the more sophisticated responses mentioned above might not give the picture book a second glance. And when it comes to the image of a chicken at the counter in a diner ready to tuck into a mammoth cheeseburger, conjuring up the idea of barnyard cannibalism, I just throw up my hands.

I like the book the same way I enjoy a wafer thing after dinner chocolate mint; It wasn't expected, it was a fun little surprise, and ultimately nothing more than a trifle. show less

I really enjoyed viewing this book and actually chuckled out loud a few times. This book reminds me of the experience when you, for example, view a Disney Pixar film with your children and they throw in a bit of adult humor for spice or perhaps out of sympathy for the parent who may be sitting in the theater watching yet another kid movie. It's a pleasant surprise!
Since working in a library and now studying children's literature, I have become more aware of children's book illustrators and their different styles. It was entertaining to try and guess who the illustrator was before you glanced the name or to recognize them right off the bat. It was also intriguing to see how each illustrator demonstrated their different takes of a simple show more question, "Why did the chicken cross the road?" I don't know if children would grasp some of the adult humor thrown in, but I think they would like the silliness of the pictures none the less. show less

What a fun book! Each page has a different picture book illustrator answering the main question. There are not many words in the book, however the pictures leave much to the imagination. This book is lots of fun and demonstrates the impressive artistic range and talent featured in today’s picture books.

Summary: A composition of various authors and their "Why did the chicken cross the rode?" jokes. All jokes are unalike and equally hilarious.

Personal reflection: This book made me laugh almost every page! I enjoyed hearing the new spin off jokes from the original "How did the chicken cross the ride?"

Class Use: I would read this after recess to re-group and gain unity again and I would also use this book to read aloud and then have students create their own jokes and have them read their jokes aloud to the class as a fun and goofy way to get out energy.

FUNNY!! This multi-authored book is a blast......each page is a new authors perspective on why the chicken crossed the road. Its has excellent text, excellent artwork, and is funny! I would use it to teach perspective, illustrating, sharing ideas, teamwork, humor., authors, collaboration. The under second grade crowd has a hard time with humor. Checkout the invitation on the front flap. Check out the back flap. Check out the artist feature in the back of the book; even shares what other books the contributors have done. Grades 2-8

This book was Awesome. A bunch of great children’s authors were given the same question: Why did the chicken cross the road” and then asked to visually give us their answer. My favorite is of course David Catrow, but Mo Willems comes in a close second.
#Wintergames #teamreadnosereindeer +16

I'd say this isn't really a children's book, although my five year old found it hilarious. It's a sampler of picture book artists, and a very good one at that. Seeing them all illustrate the same theme gives you a very good idea of each artist's personality, humor, style and skill. Many of our favorites were included in this book: [a:David Catrow|84062|David Catrow|https://www.goodreads.com/assets/nophoto/user/m_50x66-e89fc14c32a41c0eb4298dfafe929b65.png], [a:Marla Frazee|122662|Marla Frazee|https://www.goodreads.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-d9f6a4a5badfda0f69e70cc94d962125.png], [a:Jerry Pinkney|70868|Jerry Pinkney|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1373692582p2/70868.jpg], [a:David Shannon|21346|David show more Shannon|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1265301888p2/21346.jpg], and a couple of unfamiliar ones got me intrigued: [a:Judy Schachner|78407|Judy Schachner|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1210621485p2/78407.jpg] and [a:Chris Sheban|443700|Chris Sheban|https://www.goodreads.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-d9f6a4a5badfda0f69e70cc94d962125.png]. show less