Written by: Janice N. Harrington
Illustrated by: Shelley Jackson
Janice Harrington tells a wonderful story from her past about life on the farm in Alabama. There was nothing she loved to do more than to chase chickens on her grandmother's farm. Despite being told to leave them alone by her grandmother, she just couldn't help herself. She would run outside everyday to chase those chickens and she would spend all day out there until she caught as many as she could. Those chickens just weren't fast enough to out run her except for one: Miss Hen. The girl just wasn't going to be satisfied until she caught Miss Hen, but Miss Hen was smarter than all of the other chickens the girl noticed. One day, she went outside and there Miss Hen was sitting in the tall grass very still. When the girl sneakily crept over to where Miss Hen was sitting she saw why Miss Hen wasn't scurrying away from her. Miss Hen had beautiful baby chicks. The girl tells Miss Hen that she is going to teach those babies to be the fastest chickens in the coop so they can't ever be caught by even the fastest chicken chaser in the county.
I was having a little trouble on deciding which book to share this week, then I remembered about this wonderfully vibrant book that my teacher had read to my class a few weeks ago. I have only been around chickens a couple of times, and I must admit they're not my favorite animals to be around, but I do love this story. This is a great book to get students involved in. While you read, you can have them join in on the SQUACKKKKKKKing of the chickens as they are being chased in the story. Discuss with students why a person might have chickens on their farm. Example question: Have you ever been around chickens? What do you like to chase? Do you eat anything that would come from a chicken? Also, I just absolutely love how the illustrator created the pictures by using collage. I think a fun reading craft would be to have the children write and illustrate they're own mini book by using collage. So, you would need to have different materials such as colored paper, magazines, glue and scissors. I hope you enjoy this book as much as I have, and just have fun with this one.
To learn more about the author click here.
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