Customer Reviews

Four Hens and a Rooster

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

We own ALL the Boo and Baa books, ALL the Will books, ALL the Benny books, plus a few more as well such as this one. This story certainly is not comprehensible to a nearly five-year old, and I don't like it at all myself. But the drawings are terrific as usual.

We don't mind the woman's liberation theme, but the story is just too complicated and "adult", it seems. Too bad, since my little one's babicka in Czech Republic actually has a henyard herself, and two roosters.....(hen = slepice in Czech..)

What a great little story! Anyone who raises chickens as pets will completely understand the personalities of the hens and rooster described here. The illustrations are priceless!

This book had the whole family giggling. The hens contain their rooster's bullying tendancies. They attend a women's empowerment workshop to give them the skills they need. Balance is restored and harmony prevails.

A shrimpy rooster so self centered and selfish (It apparently did not even occur to him to produce chicks.) would have, in real life, been Sunday dinner. The Landstrom fowl fixated upon his chow and projects, as if he were personally descended from kings. And, like a real king, the diminutive dictator took even more when the hens protested. But, after a bus trip and self esteem classes, the four hens managed to face down the little feathered twerp, and gain, not the respect they deserved, but, at least, the appropriate rations. (I always wonder about things like how the hens financed their little expedition.)
The storytelling engineer might wish to explain to the little charges how the new and improved rooster was still not a great role model. Oh, well... Actually, the book might be used to discuss how families might be run in a more respectable manner.
Anyhow, the art gets a five and the story a three. Readers wishing to see more great art with an adequate story might wish to read Barbo Lindgren's book "Benny and the Binky," illustrated by Olof Landstrom.