Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road? Ages 5-8

Award-winning artists, using hilarious illustrations, present their own verison of the classic joke, from Mo Willems's chicken who confesses his motives to a police officer, to Marle Frazee's chicken who is searching for a luxury "coop."

Subjects

Chickens/ Caricatures and cartoons/ Juvenile literature, American wit and humor, Pictorial/ Juvenile literature, Chickens/ Cartoons and comics

Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?

By Jon Agee

Illustrated by Jerry Pinkney

Published by Dial Books for Young Readers, 2006

ISBN 0803730942, 9780803730946

40 pages

Fourteen artists, nearly all of them ...... household names, offer answers to the classic title question. The punch lines are as varied as the visuals, with chickens fleeing threats such as dinosaurs (Jon Agee); "mutated zombie chickens ... more » from Mars" (Harry Bliss); running toward a more glamorous henhouse (Marla Frazee), or an enticing tangle of mysterious creatures and shapes (Mary GrandPr). Some are crossing because the light changed (Lynn Munsinger, David Shannon), a baseball went through a window (Chris Sheban) or a tasty treat beckons (Judy Schachner, Jerry Pinkney, David Catrow). Chris Raschka closes with a sphinx looking up at the viewer, murmuring, "You tell me," and all of the contributors' chickens march across a final spread with jokey answers to another query: "Why did the artist cross the road?" Evidently offered not to support a charity but just for fun (plus a little promotion), this gallery of clever pullet surprises will draw crows of delight. (Picture book. 5, 6, 7, 8, adult) Kirkus Reviews Copyright (c) VNU Business Media, Inc