Module 1 Blog: Picture Books
Picture Book Chosen: Interrupting
Chicken
Author
of Book Chosen: David Ezra Stein
Plot
The story is about little
red Chicken, Papa’s little girl, who interrupts him whenever he attempts to
tell Chicken a bedtime story. Papa carries little red Chicken to bed with
Chicken stating that he is forgetting something; her bedtime story. Papa agrees
to the story so long as she does not interrupt him. Chicken agrees and says oh Papa, I’ll be good and, thus, Papa
begins with a story. The first story Papa tells is Hansel and Gretel and Chkn
interrupts. The next story Papa tells is Little red Riding Hood and Chkn
interrupts. Finally, Papa tells the story of Chicken Little and…Chkn
interrupts. By the time Chkn is done with the last story, Papa is fed up and
there are no more stories to tell no matter how much Chkn wants another. So,
Papa tells Chkn to tell a story to him as he yawns and climbs into her bed.
Chkn looks enthused and whips out a notebook and crayon and begins her story
called “Bedtime for Papa” by Chkn. It
starts with Once with there was a little
red chicken who put her Papa to bed. She read him a hundred stories. She even
gave him warm milk, but nothing worked: he stayed wide awake all- ZZZZZZZZZ! The
story continues with Chkn trying to overpower her Papa’s snoring but cannot.
Chkn simply asks Papa with his answer
being many snores? Chkn gets up off
her stool, leaves her notebook and crayon behind, pats her Papa’s head and says
Goodnight, Papa. The end of the story
illustrated Chkn and Papa in bed asleep.
Impression of the book
I
really enjoyed reading this book. The first time I read Interrupting Chicken was for my Children’s Literature Undergrad
class at UTD. We had to share a Caldecott winner/honor picture book and one of
the girls in class introduced us to this book. She read the book out loud, then
I read it silently, and just the other day I had it read out loud to me again.
Three times I’ve experienced the book and all three times I laughed. I made my
partner read it and she said the ending could have been better but I thought it
was perfect. I felt like the ending of the book mimicked how Chkn, the little
girl protagonist, always interrupted her Papa with her own version of the story
by pretty much ending it from where it began. So, when Chkn started her story
about how she had to put her Papa to bed, Papa’s snoring immediately
interrupted the story and pretty much ended it since the ZZZ’s concluded the plot of how to put Papa to bed. The story had
three other stories within the story and I loved how Chkn told her own version
of it, no matter how short and succinct. It showed that Chkn knew what the
endings were and decided for herself that if the protagonists of each story
knew what was going to happen, they wouldn’t be in any type of predicament. So,
Chkn retells the story therefore keeping the characters safe and thus ending
the fairy tales. Papa, on the other hand, is exasperated with his daughter
because all he wants is for her to go to sleep. As an adult, this is what I
found so funny. The way Papa was, after every interruption states-with a look
of consternation- Chkn. You interrupted. Out
of all the illustrations, Papa’s face was my favorite to look at. Maybe because
that’s the same face I have or maybe because is in complete opposites of Chkn’s
face either way, it makes me laugh every time. I also loved how gender-free
Chkn is. We only know she is a girl because of the word girl and she. When a
child read this book, they won’t pay attention to the fact that Chkn is a girl
or a boy but rather that Chkn is a kid who obviously is not sleepy and has
opinions of how stories should end. I love this book because it allows children
to read a book about a Chkn who spins her own tales on beloved fairy tales and
thus helps to develop that art of storytelling. When kids read this, they might
be reading about themselves. When I read this book, I realized that I’m not the
only grown up to have thought about re-telling fairy tales. David Ezra Stein
not only told his own story through Chkn but was able to change three fairy
tales into his own story. What David Ezra Stein did was create a story within a
story in order to tell his own. And I appreciated it. Matter of fact, I loved
it.
Usage for a Library Setting
Obviously
this book is a great story-time book for young readers because it engages the
listeners and has them actively participating with Chkn every time she interrupts.
The Librarian, after she reads the book once, could re-read the book with the
children telling the part of Chkn’s interruptions. Then, after the story time,
assign the kids a story such as three little pigs, have them pick out the ways
the pigs made mistakes, and then have the kids fix them. Then, just as Chkn did
in the book, have the Librarian tell the story of Three Little pigs and then
the kids assigned to the story will interrupt with his own version of the
story. I’m sure it would be a day of laughter and storytelling that is logical
and imaginative at the same time.
Reviews
Travis Jonker is an
elementary school librarian in Michigan. He writes reviews (and the occasional
article or two) for School Library Journal and is a member of the 2014
Caldecott committee. You can email Travis at scopenotes@gmail.com, or follow
him on Twitter: @100scopenotes. Jonker’s
review on best new books reads
“…Add the supremely clever Interrupting
Chicken to this list as well. Actually, move it to the top of the list,
since it will surely go down as one of the best picture books of 2010.
Papa is trying to read little chicken a bedtime story, but it isn’t going
well. As soon as the story begins, chicken interrupts to hilariously insert
herself into the story and prevent trouble. When Hansel and Gretel are about to
go into the old woman’s house, chicken can’t be contained: Out jumped a little
red chicken, and she said, “DON’T GO IN! SHE’S A WITCH!” So Hansel and Gretel
didn’t. The End! This sequence of events spoils three classic tales when an
exasperated Papa finally asks chicken to write one of her own. But the tables
turn and Papa interrupts chicken’s story – with a loud snore. Stein uses a
unique collection of media (*deep breath* watercolor, water-soluble crayon,
china marker, pen, opaque white ink) with unique results. Warm and vivid, the
illustrations perfectly capture the setting of a bedroom at night. The segments
where other stories come into play (when papa is reading famous fables, when
chicken creates her own story) are particularly memorable, because they each
employ a completely different style than the rest of the book, adding a nice
touch of authenticity. A story about reading stories that
will work during storytime. Sounds sort of complicated, but read Interrupting Chicken and it’s easy to
see what this is – an expertly crafted, funny, engaging title that should be a
part of every collection.”
APA Citation
Jonker, T. (2010,
September 17). Review: Interrupting Chicken by Ezra Stein. In 100scopenotes.com.
Retrieved January 30, 2014, from
http://100scopenotes.com/2010/09/17/review-interrupting-chicken-by-david-ezra-stein/
Stein, D. E., &
Candlewick Press. (2010). Interrupting chicken. Somerville, Mass:
Candlewick Press.
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