Customer Reviews

Love and Roast Chicken: A Trickster Tale from the Andes Mountains

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Love and Roast Chicken by Barbara Knutson(Don't worry I'd never heard of her, either) is one of the best read-alouds of the year. It has the three key elements that come with every picture book. Those, of course being a great text, illustrations, and a loveable hero. Check, check, and check.My question is: Why wasn't this book awarded at least a Caldecott Honor award. I guess we'll never know...

Okay, so we come to the story. For some reason Tio Antonio the Fox just can't get enough of him some guinea pig(In this case a plump little fellow named Cuy). The book tells of three clever episodes where the poor Cuy tricks the Fox into not eating him. So at the end of that second episode, I'm wondering where the title comes in. Seriously, what does a Fox trying to get his paws on a Guinea pig have to do with either Love or Roast Chicken.

Knutson's drawings look Starry Night-inspired and are perfect for this lighthearted tale of yet another adorable trickster. I urge you to get this before you think of picking up Knuffle Bunny

As always, R, your friendly neighborhood reviewer.

I'm finally buying this book after having borrowed it from the library too many times to count! Both my kids, 6 and 3, LOVE this book!!! Every single time we read it, they both just crack up! And it's sweet funny, not gross funny like so many things out there these days. Cuy the guinea pig (how can you not like a guinea pig outsmarting a fox?!) is just too cute for words.

I also love that this book contains some Spanish words and phrases scattered throughout (don't worry, there's a glossary in back). And the short little blurb on the back page helped us learn where guinea pigs come from.

All in all, I'd rank this as one of the top 2 or 3 books we've ever read. And trust me, we've read a lot!!!

Who knew that Peruvian folktales would have so much in common with African-American Brer Rabbit stories? I guess this is why some people get PhDs in folklore research, dedicating their lives to understanding how tales from such disparate lands are connected. As a follower of folktales in the roughest sense of the term, I confess that prior to reading this book I'd never read a single Peruvian tale in all my live long days. This particular yarn will strike a great many adults as suspiciously similar to other trickster tales they may have heard in the past. But when you consider that the author/illustrator, Barbara Knutson, actually lived in Peru for two years... well let's just say that this was a woman with enough experience under her belt to not have to find sources for her stories vicariously.

Cuy the guinea pig lives a guinea piggish existence in the high Andes Mountains of Peru. One day, he finds himself trapped by the fox Tio Antonio with nowhere to hide. The quick thinking rodent manages to trick the fox into holding a heavy rock with the admonishment that should it fall the sky will fall. After the fox realizes his mistake he traps the guinea pig for a second time at the mouth of a tunnel. Cuy explains that he's making a burrow to escape the end of the world and Tio Antonio believes him once again and hides himself. Cuy, meanwhile, disguises himself as a field worker and is hired by a trusting and exceedingly gullible farmer to weed, hoe, and water the fields (taking some alfalfa for himself when the day is done). The farmer notes the loss and using a sticky clay statue (some might call it a Tar Baby) catches Cuy with his trap. The farmer exclaims (in what has got to be my favorite folktale line in a long time), "You're not a farmworker, you're a guinea pig!". Nice work, Sherlock. The farmer then ties Cuy to a tree so that he and his family can eat him in the morning, when along comes Tio Antonio. The guinea pig convinces the fox that he is being held against his will because his fiancée (the farmer's daughter) refuses to marry him until he learns to like roast chicken. The fox eagerly switches places with Cuy, allowing our hero yet another chance at life and mischief.

Once you get through the Author's Note at the end you'll discover that people actually continue to eat wild guinea pigs to this day. Which sounds pretty darn tasty, when you stop to think about it (though only if, like myself, you've never actually had one as a pet). Because the people of the Andes speak a mix of Spanish and Quechua or Aymara, Knutson could have included words in all three languages. For the sake of practicality, however, she has only included Spanish terms. This are peppered freely about the text and never get much more complicated than "que tramposo". There is a lovely little glossary of such words at the back of the book, something that will be very useful to those reading the book aloud. After all, the hero Cuy is pronounced "KWEE". Be sure you check this page before making any pronunciation mistakes. There is also a rather sweet photograph at the back of Ms. Knutson drawing something for some Andean children.

The illustrations are rubber-cut prints painted over with watercolors. At first glance you would swear that these were painted woodcuts, but Knutson found a far easier method than that. There's an odd discrepancy in this book that I feel obligated to point out, though plenty of parents would pooh-pooh it as inconsequential. When the Fox is hidden in the cave to escape the world ending by fire, a huge fire alights outside his hiding place. This is presumably Cuy lighting a fire and further tricking poor Tio Antonio. Unfortunately, this is never alluded to or explained in any way. Kids reading the book could easily be confused by this portion of the plot that just dangles in the breeze without sufficient explanation.

Barbara Knutson passed away in May of 2005. No more lovely picture books will be forthcoming from this original artist/illustrator. Just the same, if you're thinking of using her works in your classroom or even with your own children, just locate her website by plugging her name into Google. It provides some wonderful teaching guides for the story and for South American studies in general. I didn't personally connect with "Love and Roast Chicken" as easily as I've done with other trickster tales. Just the same, this is an important addition stemming from a part of the world we've too few tales from. Plus it's hard to resist guinea pig heroes. They just look so tasty!

Cuy (who is taking the role of Br'er Rabbit in these tales - he even gets caught with a "tar" (sticky gum) baby at one point!) is very very little. And when you're very very little and there's a big fox that wants to eat you and farms that don't want you to eat their alfalfa, you have to find a way to survive.

Cuy survives by tricking people. He convinces Fox that the world is about to end, and that the sky is about to fall. He convinces the farmer that he's a very very small field hand. (This cracks me up every time.)

It's hilarious. ABsolutely hilarious, and the art isn't half bad either.

Great story, so unique, I enjoyed it. Slightly advanced for under age 6. Most illustrations great (--a couple a little hard for kids to understand what they are looking at.) I was saddened when this wonderful author passed away. Beautiful book, wish for more like this!!

This book is one of my favorites. I developed a Language Arts tricksters unit and used it as my central book. It has wonderful illustrations and a great story line that is similar to many trickster tales from other cultures. This makes it easy to compare and contrast characters, setting, and plot between cultures. Barbara Knutson's website also offers many pdf print outs and suggestions for teaching with her books. I would recommend this book to any teacher or parent.