The Chicken Problem
Peg likes solving problems. Her cat, Cat, likes helping her. And both of them like pie. One day when they visit Pig at the farm, they happen to have a pie, which Peg divides. But—Big Problem!—there’s one small piece left. So Cat opens the door to the chicken coop and brings out a chickie to eat the pie. Problem solved? Nope. Big Problem! The door’s unlatched, and soon 100 chickens are leaping and somersaulting around the yard. Although it’s billed as a math-concept book, there’s relatively little here about counting (most of the addition comes from counting chickens or from the simple addition used to indicate page numbers). That aspect could have been dropped because this is plenty cute on its own. The effort put into the design—graph paper backgrounds, typewriter lettering, and pages overflowing with tiny, identical chicks—makes for a real eye-catcher. The ebullient pictures match a text that’s as funny as it is fowl. Kids can count away, but mostly they’ll be giggling. Preschool-Grade 1. --Ilene Cooper