My Life as a Chicken
Starred Review.Kindergarten-Grade 3—Pauline Poulet reveals all in this tale of adventure. After hearing the farmer plotting to put her in a chicken pie, the plucky hen escapes her dreary life of doing nothing but laying eggs and winds up in a scary wood. She outfoxes the fox chasing her, and her new motto is born: "Pauline, Prevail!" But things get worse when she falls into the river and is picked up by pirate cats; she barely escapes the bloodthirsty ship's cook and, after a slight problem with a hot-air balloon and a kite, she lands safely in a petting zoo, where she takes up residence happily ever after. Slack's digital mixed-media illustrations are wacky and cartoonish, and the text ripples with big, impressive words befitting the exaggerated nature of Pauline's adventures: "I navigate high altitudes,/an aeronaut with fortitude./Above me burns a blaze of stars,/below the view blurs fast and far." Language-arts teachers will have a field day with this one, and the tone and zany sensibilities of the story and pictures are a perfect match for the funny bones of an early elementary audience.—Kathleen Kelly MacMillan, Carroll County Public Library, MDCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.