The Chicken Doesn't Skate

My Review: A hilarious and clever story that mixes science, class pets, and middle school drama. Korman’s wit shines through, making it a fun read that keeps students laughing and turning pages.

When Milo hatches a chicken for his science fair project on the food chain, the entire school falls in love with the chicken. But how will everyone react when they find out that Milo plans on butchering the specimen and serving fried chicken at the science fair?

This is one of Gordon Korman's funniest books.

This isn't the best of Gordon Korman's work, but it's still pretty funny. It's told from a variety of viewpoints and it's mostly a funny story about coincidences and different people working together. Mostly funny.

Adam is obsessed with hockey, but as a stereotypical jock he's not very bright and failed sixth grade science. Zachary is obsessed with his horror screenplays, and as a stereotypical nerd gets constant wedgies and is picked on by Adam and the other jocks. Milo is a typical science nerd; the teacher is thrilled with him because his dad is an important scientist, but Milo doesn't see what the big deal is and hates having to move from California to Minnesota when his parents divorced. Milo decides to focus on the life cycle of a show more chicken for his science project.

Then Kelly Marie goes nuts over "Henrietta", Milo's science project. Henrietta ends up as the hockey team's mascot, everyone goes crazy over the chicken, especially the science teacher even though, as the coach says, "the chicken doesn't skate."

Of course, this is a Gordon Korman story, so it's not going to have a completely typical ending. The hockey team does win its game, but not without the help of Henrietta, a last-minute surprise talent of Zach's, and some interference from Kelly Marie.

The three main characters were pretty heavily stereotyped and I found Zachary's screenplays annoying, but I don't think this will bother most readers. Reluctant readers especially will like the change of viewpoint in each chapter and the piling on of funny and wacky accidents and events.

Verdict: This was reprinted in 2011 with a shiny new cover. If you have any hockey fans, I'd say it's worth adding to your collection, otherwise not so much as there's a lot of discussion of hockey included, about equal with the funny chicken incidents.

ISBN: 0590853015; Published 1996 by Scholastic; Don't remember where I got this, Bookmooch I think? show less

This is one of my all-time favorite books. It's been crowded out of my review pile by newer, flashier books, so I'm setting it aside to give to my younger sister (who has heard me rave about Gordon Korman books for so long that now she asked me for one! Yay!). I just wanted to say that I absolutely adored this book when I was younger, and while it's not quite as amazing as I remember it being reading it a few years later, it's still pretty awesome.

My son enjoyed the book and he especially liked the way the author made it clear which character was speaking. Full review: http://www.canadianauthors.net/k/korman_gordon/chicken_doesnt_skate_the.php