Big Chickens

A few months ago, I nominated Big Chickens Fly the Coop for the Cybils....to my astonishment, I recently discovered it was a sequel! Here is the original Big Chickens for your delight.

Both this story and the sequel follow the same pattern. Four nervous chickens work their way through an astonishing number of alliterative verbs as they try to work up their courage. The first isn't quite as well-organized as the second, which has better repeating phrases, but it's still a tongue-twisting delight! These are ideal stories for read-alouds - as fast as you can, with lots of expression and the kids will giggle along! Henry Cole's bug-eyed chickens scuttle through the pages from disaster to disaster and finally strut home, safe and show more proud.

Verdict: Strongly recommended - you can never have too many great chicken books in your collection!

Big Chickens
ISBN: 0-525-47575-3; Published February 2006 by Dutton; Borrowed from the library

Big Chickens Fly the Coop
ISBN: 978-0525479154; Published January 2008 by Dutton; Borrowed from the library; Purchased for the library; Added to my personal wishlist show less

Kristy Pratt
2/4/15
Reading Log Opinion Response for Big Chickens
I enjoyed reading Big Chickens for many reasons such as the illustrations, the text lay-out, the narration, the use of descriptive grammar, and the theme. I attempted to come up with a negative aspect of this book, but was unable. Not only were the illustrations large and brightly colored, but they went along well with the text and kept the reader excited to see what would happen next. The text was large and spaced-out which made the story easier to read and follow along. The narrative aspect of the story was cleverly worded and clearly expressed how the characters were feeling through each fearful encounter. For example, when the main characters, four cowardly chickens who show more are being chased by a wolf, come to a cave, they voice their fears by stating, “What if we can’t see in there? What if we wake up some bats? What if we fall into a bottomless pit?” The abundant use of descriptive verbs and adjectives kept the reader captivated, as they were overly exaggerated and animated. An example of this is when the four chickens are crossing a cow pasture and the story reads, “The chickens squeaked, squirmed, and squealed. They squawked at themselves and each other, until one by one…” Finally, the theme of fear and courage was maintained throughout the book and presented the reader with a life lesson of overcoming your fears and being brave. The chickens begin the story running away from a wolf and are afraid of everything they encounter such as ditches, cows and caves. They talk about how afraid they are of everything, but end up overcoming all of their fears and defeating the wolf. They are proud of their bravery in the end and have overcome their fears together. show less

The funny language, repetitive lines, and illustrations in this book about four cowardly chickens keep us laughing through the story. In running away from a wolf, they have a series of misadventures until, quite by accident, they scare off the wolf, the feel quite proud of themselves. I especially love the humorous-sounding invented words and the funny expressions on the chickens faces, and I think K-2 children will, too.

A fun book that leaves the reader guessing what will happen next. This would be a great book to share with young children as the pictures are lively, the events are unexpected, and the word choice is fun!

Big Chickens is written by Leslie Helakoski and illustrated by Henry Cole. One day four chicken saw a wolf sneaking into the farmyard. They ran into the forest to hide. One chicken would say “I’m afraid …” and the others would say “Ohh…” and the other would agree. The chicken would in up stumbling into the place they were afraid of. Some things the chickens were afraid of were to jump, of cows, of the water and of caves. Inside the cave they bumped into a wolf. The wolf got scared of the chicken when the pocked, shuffled and squeaked. The wolf ran out of the cave.
Were happy in addition to one chicken said “I am a big, brave chicken.” and others agreed. The chickens then strutted all the way home.

I like this book a show more lot! The pictures are rich with color. I also like how the words are on one side of the book. The chickens having gone through what they were scared of was funny. I thought it was cute of how the wolf ran away and the chickens were proud of themselves. The book all together was sensational.

I would use this book in my classroom in many different ways. First I would use it has a read-aloud to kindergarten through third grade. I would have a class grand conversation about the chicken and being scared. I would have the children talk about being scared, as well as how they were able to overcome it. I would have the children talk about the illustrations by Henry Cole and what they think about them. We would talk about how the book is repetitive. Discuss how the other chicken were copying the first chicken one, and if one chicken would have been brave. show less

This book is about four chickens who are scared out of their hut by a wolf. They then continually get into trouble because they are scared of everything and they just fall and trip into bad situations. then the chickens come face to face with the wolf and their crazy squawks and freak out scares the wolf away. The chickens then call themselves brave and strut all the way home. This is a good example of fantasy because the chickens talk and it try's to shed light on human nature. I was not a fan of this from a read aloud perspective but I might keep it in a book shelves as a rhythmic book for beginning readers to play with.

Review: This book is a good example of fantasy because the author sets it up so that we can withhold skepticism in order to appreciate the fantasy. The four personified hens tell a funny story about how they try to escape danger, but end up in the very predicaments they are trying to avoid.
Style: This book shows many good examples of onomatopoeias when it describes the chickens. Words that sound like what they mean such as tutted, putted, flutted, squealed, squeaked, sputtered, ruffled, and shuffled are found within this book.
Level: Primary, Intermediate