INTERRUPTING CHICKEN by David Ezra Stein (Picture Book)

A Book Review by Oliver

(with a little help from Violet)

Hi. I’m Violet. Remember me? I’m going to help Oliver do his first book review since I’ve gotten so good at book reviews and he hasn’t done a book review before. He’s shy. He doesn’t talk much. He’s telepathic so he usually thinks to you instead of talking and it kind of tickles so don’t be surprised when he tells you about the book and your brain tickles. Ready Oliver? Oliver? He’s being shy. It’s okay, Oliver. Tell everybody about INTERRUPTING CHICKEN by David Ezra Stein (Candlewick, 2010).

OLIVER: It’s a picture book about—

VIOLET: Hee, hee. Did you feel that? I told you it tickles! I’m sorry Oliver. Go ahead and tell them about how the little red chicken asks Papa to read her a book at bedtime and how before he does he makes the little red chicken promise not to interrupt.

OLIVER: Okay. The first book Papa reads is Hansel and Gretel. I like that story.

VIOLET: Me, too! And in INTERRUPTING CHICKEN we get to see the little red chicken’s Hansel and Gretel book and the pages that Papa reads from. But Papa doesn’t get to read very much because the little red chicken gets so excited and worried about Hansel and Gretel being at the witch’s yummy house that she yells “Don’t go in! She’s a witch!” and warns Hansel and Gretel not to go into the yummy house because the lady in the yummy house is a witch. So the little red chicken changes the story and Hansel and Gretel are safe and the witch is mad because she won’t get to eat Hansel and Gretel. And Papa is a little frustrated because the little red chicken interrupted while he was reading to her and she promised she wouldn’t interrupt.

OLIVER: Uh-huh. Then Papa tries another book.

VIOLET: That’s my favorite one. It’s Little Red Riding Hood and it’s so funny when the little red chicken interrupts to tell Little Red Riding Hood not to talk to the big bad wolf. Wait. That’s not right. The big bad wolf is in The Three Little Pigs. This is just the regular bad wolf. But anyway the little red chicken retells the story so that Little Red Riding Hood doesn’t talk to the bad wolf and that sure makes the story short because then the bad wolf never goes to Grandma’s house to eat her. The baddies in stories sure get hungry, don’t they?

OLIVER: Uh-huh.

VIOLET: Tell them what happens next, Oliver.

OLIVER: The little red chicken asks Papa to read her another book.

OLIVER: Chicken Little! And just at the part when Chicken Little is about to tell everybody that the sky is falling, the little red chicken says “It was just an acorn.” And that’s the end of that story! There’s a funny picture of Papa who looks so frustrated because the little red chicken has interrupted him again. Isn’t that a funny picture, Oliver?

OLIVER: Uh-huh.

VIOLET: And I like the next picture, too, because the little red chicken is hugging Papa and looking worried because Papa has told her that there isn’t anything else to read to her and the little red chicken needs a bedtime story or she won’t be able to fall asleep. But Papa has a good idea and the good idea is for the little red chicken to tell a story to him. He gets under the covers and waits for the story. Tell everybody what happens when the little red chicken tells Papa a story. It’s really funny, isn’t it?

OLIVER: Yes, it’s so funny. Papa falls asleep and—

VIOLET: —when he falls asleep he starts to snore and the snoring interrupts the little red chicken’s story. Get it? The little red chicken kept interrupting when Papa read her a book and then when the little red chicken is telling Papa a story, he interrupts her. So then the little red chicken gets under the covers and falls asleep, too, and it’s such a funny and good and happy ending. Right, Oliver?

OLIVER: Uh-huh.

VIOLET: You did a good book review. Didn’t I tell you it would be easy?