Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?
Starred Review.Grade 1-4–Fourteen artists present their mostly visual answers to the age-old question in two-page illustrations done in various mediums and styles. Words are at a minimum; the pictures speak for themselves. Marla Frazee's solution is simple, showing a brown hen hurrying from a plain wooden coop pelted by rain to a colorful, palacelike haven surrounded by blue sky (a thought bubble reads: duh). In Mo Willems's scene, a nervous fowl responds to a grilling by angry police officers by swearing that she crossed just…to get to the other side! Honest! Meanwhile, the heat is on, as a cop prepares a barbecue in the background. Judy Schachner's plump black chicken that foolishly heads to a dinner date with two hungry foxes, …wasn't just free-range…she was de-ranged! Jerry Pinkney's familiar Little Red Hen goes over to attend a tea party with her friends, while Harry Bliss's cartoon critter runs away from mutated zombie chickens from Mars! An equally funny section entitled Why Did the Artist Cross the Road? provides the illustrators' responses along with brief lists of their works. It's not often that one title is filled with such talent and such child appeal. This book will have readers cackling with glee and crowing for more.–Carolyn Janssen, Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, OHCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.