Count Your Chickens

by Jo Ellen Bogart, Lori Joy Smith (Illustrator)

Overview

Chickens, chickens everywhere, going to the county fair! Follow a family of chickens as they prepare for their big outing.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781770497924
Publisher:	Tundra
Publication date:	02/07/2017
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	10.20(w) x 10.20(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	2 - 5 Years

About the Author

JO ELLEN BOGART is the author of many books for children, including Big and Small, Room for All; Jeremiah Learns to Read; Daniel's Dog and Gifts. She has degrees in elementary education and psychology from the University of Texas, and she now writes full time. Jo Ellen has won the Ruth Schwartz Award and has been shortlisted for the Mr. Christie's Book Award. Her first book for Tundra was a biography of Maud Lewis called Capturing Joy: The Story of Maud Lewis, and her most recent picture book is The White Cat and the Monk, illustrated by Governor General's Award-winning illustrator Sidney Smith. Born in Houston, Texas, she now lives in a pet-filled home in Guelph, Ontario.

LORI JOY SMITH is an illustrator and fine artist whose work has been exhibited in galleries across Canada and the United States. Her illustrations have appeared on greeting cards and in Chirp, American Girl, Teen and Today's Parent magazines, among other places. Lori is an up-and-coming picture book illustrator, whose work includes Noisy Poems for a Busy Day by Robert Heidbreder, as well as The Goodnight Book, which she also wrote. Lori enjoys knitting, drawing and sewing. She lives with her family in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.

Editorial Reviews

01/01/2017
PreS-Gr 2—Through rhyming verse, readers follow a family of chickens going to the county fair, with opportunities to count the many chickens on every page. Strolling through the main street, they encounter "chicken grannies knitting socks./Chicken chicks with chicken pox." Things get more fanciful with "chicken pilots flying planes./Chicken engineers on trains." At the fair, readers meet an array of amusing chickens, from pastry cooks and princesses to clowns and a pair of "moody chickens" singing the blues (costumed in black sunglasses and black fedoras, evoking the Blues Brothers). There's even a "chicken punk" sporting "funky feathers" and "studded leathers." Smith's pencil and digital art invites young viewers to investigate the pastel-hued, detailed images. Reminiscent of the work of Richard Scarry, the spreads will encourage children to go back and pore over the illustrations, not only to count the chickens but also to track the many characters—including a pair of mice who appear on every page. A key at the end of the book reveals how many chickens are depicted on each spread. VERDICT An enjoyable concept and seek-and-find title that's ideal for springtime sharing and reinforcement of counting skills.—Kiera Parrott, School Library Journal

School Library Journal

2016-11-16
Unfolding in short, bouncy rhymes, this atypical counting book fills its pages with a flock of chickens enjoying a day at the county fair.What distinguishes this counting book is that the number of chickens to count on each double-page spread is neither simple nor sequential. There are chickens everywhere, reminiscent of Richard Scarry, with as many as 35 or more chicks, hens, and roosters on the pages. They ride the Ferris wheel and merry-go-round, toss balls at the dunk tank and teddy bear booth, and cheer at the grasshopper-tart contest. The rhymes go down easy: "Chickens on the Ferris wheel / shriek with laughter, scream and squeal. / Chicken sister cannot speak— / cotton candy in her beak!" While the short rhymes relate the action, the boisterous chickens take center stage. Digitally colored pencil illustrations use small, simple shapes to describe the chickens, but they are individually dressed in a broad range of fair attire: plaid shirts, jeans, vests, frilly dresses. The chickens are depicted in a wide range of plumage colors, and details in the clothing make it possible to follow some chicks across pages. Visual puns will make adults giggle: the Dixie Chickens perform onstage, as do the Blues Brothers. Backmatter has a simple quiz with answers, but there is no key listing the actual count of chickens per spread. There is so much feathered fun here, it's pure poultry in motion. (Picture book. 4-7)

Kirkus Reviews

PRAISE FOR Count Your Chickens:

"Unfolding in short, bouncy rhymes, this atypical counting book fills its pages with a flock of chickens enjoying a day at the county fair . . . There is so much feathered fun here, it’s pure poultry in motion." —Kirkus Reviews

"Reminiscent of the work of Richard Scarry, the spreads will encourage children to go back and pore over theillustrations, not only to count the chickens but also to track the many characters—including a pair of mice who appear onevery page . . . An enjoyable concept and seek-and-find title that’s perfect for springtime sharing and reinforcement of counting skills" —School Library Journal

"There is endless counting to be done here . . . Count Your Chickens is a perfect lap book or something for an individual child to spend time with." —CM Magazine

"Less a storybook and more of an immersive experience that delights in small details a la Richard Scarry." —Fresh Press

"The impressive rhyming text is matched with colorful, detailed illustrations . . . in bright, breezy and humorous spreads that will have young readers paying very close attention to the many opportunities for counting presented." —Sal's Fiction Addiction

PRAISE FOR Big and Small, Room for All by Jo Ellen Bogart:

"Bogart presents a way for young children to explore the concepts of big and small in a way few picture books address.... Both text and illustrations have a modest sense of the sublime in their subject, one that comes across clearly. A necessary purchase that surpasses the ordinary fare." —Starred Review, Kirkus Reviews

"[S]imple rhymes take the reader on a journey from the deep expanse of the universe to the tiny organisms revealed under a microscope . . . Stunning." —Starred Review, Quill & Quire

"Word choice is highly suitable for the earliest independent readers. This book will serve as a springboard for discussing the way children perceive size in the natural world." —School Library Journal

"Introducing small children to a big idea, this handsome picture book uses an open-ended approach that could lead to good discussions." —Booklist

From the Publisher