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Searching... Monmouth Public Library | GRAY | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Silver Falls Library | JP GRAY | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
It's 4 o'cluck in the morning. Another day is dawning....Colin the rooster puffs out his chest. Ready to do what he doodle-doos best. Telling the time has never been funnier, as the hens clock watch from food time until fox time. But there may not be a next time unless Colin and the hens save themselves from the greedy fox.
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2-This entertaining book captures the waddle and pluck of a group of chickens as they amble through a long, almost carefree day. From "4 o'cluck in the morning" until "12 o'cluck midnight," the eight egg layers and one rooster are busy dive-bombing ducks, visiting with Jane the blackbird, and finding shapes in the clouds. However, at nighttime, they tremble with fear because of a fox named Olga, even though they're safely locked in the henhouse. Of course, the quick-thinking rooster prevails, and the predator departs with dirt in her eye. This energetic and silly story has a lilting rhyme that sets a frolicking pace. The tale also addresses the concept of time, and while things often happen on the hour, events also occur at 12:25 or at 10:57, so that the flow of hours and minutes is more natural. The illustrations enhance the humor of the text; they are colorful, bright, and effectively textured. Ranging from orange to light blue to purple with hearts, each chicken is visually unique and full of personality. McQuillan supports the time-telling concept with a visual prop-a small egg on animated legs with a numberless clock face and black hands. With its infectious sense of fun, this title can be used as a read-aloud or as a lighthearted aid in enlightening children about timekeeping.-Martha Topol, Traverse Area District Library, Traverse City, MI (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
The duo previously paired for Our Twitchy teams up again for this picture-book look at a day in the life of some plucky hens and their farmyard friends. From sunrise at "4 o'cluck" to bedtime and henhouse lockup at 7 o'cluck at night, Freda, Faye and the rest of the feathered gang fill the hours with typical chicken pursuits. Hunting for worms, flapping in a dust bath and visiting the blackbird named Jane, who lives down the lane, are all part of the fun. And things never quite settle down, even as midnight, and a bit of suspense, approach. Kids will no doubt enjoy this lighthearted, behind-the-scenes peek at a traditional family-run farm. Gray's clever rhyming couplets bounce right along as they conjure breezy barnyard scenarios. In her cross-hatched, textured paintings, McQuillan blends inviting views of sunny blue sky and verdant pasture. Her memorable cast of hens, decked out in a quirky palette of chipper colors and accents (stripes, hearts, squiggles), along with Colin the rooster, give readers something to crow about. Ages 4-8. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
Unmetered rhyming text follows a day in the life of farm hens and a rooster, from dawn when they rise, eat breakfast, lay eggs, and mosey around the farm, to nightfall when a hungry fox comes sniffing around the hen house. Each event is punctuated by the time of day it occurs. Lively, textured, pastel-colored illustrations add personality to the long-winded, slow-going text. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
A busy day down on the farm is the premise for this lesson in telling time, focusing on a coop full of perky hens with names such as Jane, Marge, and Freda, and their resident rooster, Colin. The rhyming text includes various ways of stating the time, with the repeating pun of "o'cluck" instead of "o'clock." A small clock, shaped like an egg, precedes the relevant text, showing each new time designation. The hens are a funny flock in both their actions throughout the day and in the way they are portrayed in the illustrations, with different imaginative colorations and characteristics to lend each of them individuality. In the story's climax, the chickens fend off a dramatic midnight attack from a fox named Olga (a welcome female villain), who gets mud in her eye and fleas in her ears to send her packing. Funny stories that make the potentially boring subject of telling time more interesting are welcome any time in the kindergarten and first-grade classroom, and teachers and librarians will be happy to give this tale a few minutes in story hours about chickens or clocks. (Picture book. 4-8) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
PreS-Gr. 3. From the jacket illustration of an alarmed-looking rooster clutching an egg-shaped clock and inside pictures of tea-cozy-shaped chickens to the motif of tiny eggs on chicken feet decorated with the hands of a clock, this story fairly squawks with timely comedy. A mother hen narrates (in rhyme) a day in the life of chickens on a farm. She counts the minutes, starting four o'cluck in the morning when the chickens first fluff their feathers, then gives an hour-by-hour account of the day, inside and outside the henhouse. She even sprinkles in more precise times, which are shown on the egg clocks. It's 10:57 p.m. when the chickens hear a fox outside the henhouse, an event so heart-stopping that the hen forgets time for eight pages! A winsome story to be sure, as well as a great way to learn about time. --Connie Fletcher Copyright 2004 Booklist