Interrupting Chicken

Caldecott Honor Book Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein is the perfect book for trying Mo Willem’s first secret for raising a reader. "Be ridiculous when you read together. Make loud noises and jump around. If your child sees that you're enjoying the book, she will think reading is cool.”

The Little Red Chicken wants Papa to read her a bedtime story. He says he will but she must not interrupt the story. Papa starts to read Chicken Hansel and Gretel. The children find a house made of candy in the woods and start to nibble on it. An old woman comes out and invites them inside, as they were about to go in a little red chicken jumps into the story and says, “Don’t go in, she’s a witch!” So Hansel and Gretel didn’t. The end! After another admonishment to not interrupt, Papa starts to read Chicken, Little Red Riding Hood. The story ends quickly when a little red chicken jumps in and says “Don’t talk to strangers!”  Chicken Little ends quickly when a little red chicken jumps into the story to say, “Don’t panic! It was just an acorn”. The weary Papa is out of stories, so he tells Chicken to write her own. She writes a story about a chicken who is putting her Papa to bed. Her story is interrupted by Papa’s snores.

As you can see there is lots of room for dramatic interpretation in this story, whether it is read by a parent or a child. The Sonoma County Library has many copies and the Yulupa Library has 2 copies. The grade level equivalent is 2.2.