Interrupting chicken

Interrupting Chicken

By David Ezra Stein.

This book was on the ALA notable books list, and is a Caldecott Honor book.

Chicken must have stories read to her by her dad before she can fall asleep each night. Unfortunately, chicken tends to interrupt the stories to make them turn out the way she thinks they ought. Her dad gets frustrated every time she interrupts the story because this makes her even more wide awake. Finally, they compromise and chicken reads stories to her dad, who promptly falls asleep. She joins him at last.

This book reminds me of all the different people I have read aloud to in the past. Some fall asleep immediately after the first page and insist on hearing the same chapter again and again until they manage to stay awake for it. By that time, I don’t want to read it again. Then there are the people who have to discuss the book in great detail, like interrupting chicken, and we never get the story read. The third type of person I have read to is the one who stays awake while I fall asleep in the middle of the sentence, and finishes the book without me. All in all, I would say that reading to someone is better than reading by yourself.

Stein, D. E. (2010). Interrupting Chicken. Somerville, Massachusetts: Candlewick Press.