Customer Reviews

The Problem With Chickens (New York Times Best Illustrated Books (Awards))

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

 

 

This is one of my three-year-old daughter's favorite books. The expressions on the faces of the ladies, who are caring for some upstart chickens, are so funny and endearing. And you can't help but admire the ladies' pluck and creativity in solving their unusual problem. Also, the drawings of the Icelandic landscape are beautiful and make me yearn to see it for real someday.

I have many of Bruce McMillan's stories each of them stands alone as wonderful additions to a class library. Especially the Problem with Chickens, it was clever, kind and funny. My class of third graders loved it. It is a class favorite now.

Really good book for the younger set. Even as an adult I found it intersting and funny.

Delightful book! Well put together, superb graphics, highly recommended for both children and for collectors of illustrated children books.

My niece told me that my grand niece loves this book. She has it memorized and is her favorite of the books I got her for Christmas.

I gave this book to our six year old granddaughter (going into 1st grade). She read it completely by herself and at the end of the book laughed out loud. She enjoyed it. I also found the illustrations to be fun! In my earlier years I was a first grade teacher -

Let's say you have a favorite artist that you have discovered all on your own. Your favorite artist is Icelandic and likes to paint chickens. You, in contrast, are an author/illustrator of children's books. Normally, you illustrate your own work. In this particular case, however, you have decided to convince your favorite artist that they should put their paintings into your newest picture book. Now, if they refuse then you are no poorer off then you were at the start. However, if they agree you might end up with something along the lines of, "The Problem With Chickens". Written by Maine resident Bruce McMillan and illustrated by Icelandic one-namer Gunnella, this book is the duo's first collaboration and (in both cases) best-known work. Chickens are inherently silly fowl, and in this book they become rather adorable to boot. One of the finest examples of chicken/Icelandic women relationships.

Now there once was a small Icelandic village that had a problem. Though there were plenty of eggs nearby, they were laid primarily by the wild birds that nested in the crags of the cliffs where the female villagers could not reach them. As a solution, the women decided to buy some chickens from the big city. At first this arrangement worked out well. The chickens were happy and the women were getting lots of yummy eggs. Unfortunately, this all changed when the chickens stopped acting chickens at all and began imitating the women. Even then, the women didn't mind. That is, until the chickens stopped laying eggs. Desperate times call for desperate measures, so the women come up with a solution. They slyly teach the chickens to exercise, then bodily throw them into the air to remind them what they are. Before long, the chickens are laying their eggs on the cliffs like the other Icelandic birds, but now the ladies have a solution to this problem. A solution, and a new method of chicken-related travel.

McMillan was a fan of Gunnella's art long before they collaborated on this particular work together. Somehow when I read the review of this book in the New York Times, I fell under the impression that Gunnella had created the illustrations entirely on her own and Bruce McMillan had constructed a story around them. This is only partly true. Says McMillan on his website, "With so many paintings with chickens I knew I could develop a story. I did and Gunnella liked it. Then Gunnella filled in the few gaps where we needed new art". I would like to be able to say that the fact that most of these pictures came about before McMillan wrote a story for them isn't obvious. Unfortunately, when you pick up the book and read through it you often find yourself frowning slightly over pictures that don't quite match their narratives. At one point the text says that the chickens were happy with the women and that the, "ladies were overjoyed to have so many eggs for cooking. Their cakes were delicious. That is when the problem started". The picture that accompanies these words, however, is of a woman holding a child on her lap. There are chickens in the background, yes. And eggs are in the woman's basket. But there aren't any cakes (bread and croissants instead) and the picture really strikes you more as a work of art than a scene in a book. People will debate me over whether or not this is really a problem. Is it a crime for art to look like art in a picture book? Of course not! But it has to make sense with the text. And in this case, it fails to do so.

None of this is to say that the art is bad. Not a bit of it. It's charming. Some of these paintings (like the one that appears when the chickens first stop laying any eggs) are really extraordinarily beautiful. It's not difficult to understand why McMillan loved Gunnella's work long before the two collaborated on this together. The chickens are especially adorable. With their beady little eyes and inquisitive expressions, it's not hard to find yourself wishing for more chicken pics. I was especially fond of the illustration in which the chickens sing with the women to the sheep. Their little mouths are open in an "O" shape and the sheep look mighty contented. It is a little off-putting, though, that some of the pictures are painted on canvasses with a lot of texture (as with the last image in the book) and some are painted without any texture at all.

And then there's the text itself. So let's review: The chickens stop laying eggs so the women come up with a "very clever idea". They get the chickens to exercise, then throw them in the air and say, "Remember, you are birds". The chickens then, for some reason, decide that because they are birds they must nest on the cliffs where the other Icelandic birds would go. That makes sense, but the way in which McMillan presents this information is a bit herky-jerky. It feels, quite frankly, like a translation. Plot ideas jump about so quickly that it's hard to follow the book's linear structure. I mean, why were the chickens imitating the women? Did they like them or envy them? Did they think it would be more fun to act like humans? I'll give McMillan this much. When the chickens stop laying the book reads, "That's when the ladies said, `We have a problem'." I love that line.

The book is beautiful and might actually make for a rather nice readaloud. It's just silly enough to entice some of the younger brood. However, none of this is to say that it's one of the better written titles. McMillan is just too herky-jerky with his plotting and writing to allow this puppy to proceed smoothly. It's a lovely little book, but certainly an odd one. Pleasant but I would also love to see Gunnella pair with a different author someday.