A review by gymnerdreader
Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein

5.0

Annotated Bibliography Entry: Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein

Summary:

It is Little Chicken's bedtime and Papa Chicken has a daunting task ahead of him: he has to try to get Little Chicken to sleep and Little Chicken has a habit of interrupting every story that papa reads. Papa tries reading her Hansel and Gretel, Little Read Riding Hood and Chicken Little and Little Chicken gets so involved with each story and interrupts all three. This frustrates Papa as he realizes that Little Chicken is wide awake and is not even tired. He then decides to lay and bed and have Little Chicken read him a story, which she does and eventually Papa and Little Chicken fall asleep together.

Personal Response:

Interrupting Chicken is a wonderful book and I feel like it is definitely an appealing book for children. I love the idea of the book more than anything, especially the concept of intertextuality with the multiple classic stories included. I also loved that when the chicken interrupted the story it almost seemed as if she was in the story herself. Even though she was not in the story itself, I loved how it felt like she was and really contributed to the intertextuality in the story. David Ezra Stein is also a nice guy and a great writer, it truly was lovely getting the opportunity to meet him.

Descriptions of Illustrations:

There is a sort of hidden complexity present in Stein's illustrations and I loved the little nuances that can be seen under closer examination. I personally love the perspective with the lines and the big book that is used to read to Little Chicken. It really gives it a genuine feel and I love that aspect. The drawings are cartoons, which I feel will interest children as well, although they may not be able to pick up on the little nuances present in his illustrations.

Classroom Connections:

There is a lot of ways teachers could incorporate this book into their lessons. In fact, I am incorporating this book into my practice lesson plan about key details. I thought this book would be useful to introduce them to key details in a text. I also thought it made for a good theme as well, which I decided to explore in my own lesson plan. Of course, another thing you could do with this story doing readers theater and assigning parts to students that they could read aloud and even act out. We, personally tried doing this in one of our classes and it worked out pretty well. I think readers theater is a fun way to boost literacy and kids seem to enjoy it. Kids could also make their own chicken puppets and use those puppets to act out the story. I have tried making chicken puppets and they are not very hard to make. I think children would have a fun time making them.