What do you think?
Rate this book
Picken: Mix and match the farm animals!
Mix and match the front and back of farm animals to create funny new species!
If you could cross a calf with a chicken, would that be a cacken? How on earth do you make a chiglet? Would a kippy satisfy folks who love kittens and puppies? With this inventive book, children are invited to flip the pages to make outlandish creatures with silly hybrid names. Featuring boldly colored, simply shaped animals ready to be mixed up again and again, these sturdy board-book pages open to the left and the right for easy manipulation by little hands.
If you could cross a calf with a chicken, would that be a cacken? How on earth do you make a chiglet? Would a kippy satisfy folks who love kittens and puppies? With this inventive book, children are invited to flip the pages to make outlandish creatures with silly hybrid names. Featuring boldly colored, simply shaped animals ready to be mixed up again and again, these sturdy board-book pages open to the left and the right for easy manipulation by little hands.
12 pages, Board Book
Published March 12, 2019
13 people want to read
About the author
Mary Murphy
68 books28 followersChildren's author and illustrator Mary Murphy enchants even the youngest of readers with her bold style, combining eye-catching graphics and a bouncy text that seemingly jump off the pages.
Mary Murphy has an advanced diploma in Visual Communications and has written and illustrated a number of children's books, including her lift-the-flap, pull-the-tab book about friendship, ROXIE AND BO TOGETHER. In addition to creating children's books, she teaches illustration. The author-illustrator lives in Galway, Ireland.
Mary Murphy has an advanced diploma in Visual Communications and has written and illustrated a number of children's books, including her lift-the-flap, pull-the-tab book about friendship, ROXIE AND BO TOGETHER. In addition to creating children's books, she teaches illustration. The author-illustrator lives in Galway, Ireland.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
January 5, 2017
Picken, is a young children’s board book. It has seven different baby animals on each page, and each page is split into two. The animals include puppy, goose, piglet, kitten, chicken, lamb and a calf.
The idea of the book is to make up your own animal using the seven animals included. You turn one half of the book over, which will be the front of the animal, and then you choose a different animal to be the rear, thus making a new silly animal. So you could have a lamb for the front half and a calf for the rear end, making a Lalf.
The book will give children a giggle as they get to make a whole host of made up animals. It will also help teach little children proper animal names, as well as the silly ones.
It is brightly coloured with bold, large illustrations. With it being a board book, it is also sturdy enough for a very young child to play with.
A lovely book that younger children can have some fun with.
Reviewed by Stacey at www.whisperingstories.com
The idea of the book is to make up your own animal using the seven animals included. You turn one half of the book over, which will be the front of the animal, and then you choose a different animal to be the rear, thus making a new silly animal. So you could have a lamb for the front half and a calf for the rear end, making a Lalf.
The book will give children a giggle as they get to make a whole host of made up animals. It will also help teach little children proper animal names, as well as the silly ones.
It is brightly coloured with bold, large illustrations. With it being a board book, it is also sturdy enough for a very young child to play with.
A lovely book that younger children can have some fun with.
Reviewed by Stacey at www.whisperingstories.com
February 14, 2021
Cut outs of each page make a different animal - with the new name shown above.
August 28, 2019
SUPER fun book to read at storytime. I read it at my single moms outreach storytime and the moms cracked up at the combinations. More humor can be had if you attempt to make the sounds you think the combo-animals make!
December 16, 2023
First sentence: Mix and match the farm animals.
Premise/plot: This is an interactive board book for parents to share with little ones. It has a unique format. One can open up the pages simultaneously and have all the animals be matched perfectly. OR one can mix and match all the farm animals. One can choose to be "proper" or "whimsical."
My thoughts: Will this one be appealing to every parent? Maybe. Maybe not. Same with little ones, of course. One can't really predict how other little ones will react--what they will find amusing. This one has the potential for some laughs. But no guarantees. I can imagine a scenario where parents and young readers can have a lot of fun. For example, what noise do you think a picken (cross between a chicken and a pig) would make?
Premise/plot: This is an interactive board book for parents to share with little ones. It has a unique format. One can open up the pages simultaneously and have all the animals be matched perfectly. OR one can mix and match all the farm animals. One can choose to be "proper" or "whimsical."
My thoughts: Will this one be appealing to every parent? Maybe. Maybe not. Same with little ones, of course. One can't really predict how other little ones will react--what they will find amusing. This one has the potential for some laughs. But no guarantees. I can imagine a scenario where parents and young readers can have a lot of fun. For example, what noise do you think a picken (cross between a chicken and a pig) would make?
February 6, 2020
This lift-the-flap board book invites young readers to mix and match front and back halves of farm animals to create comic combinations.
While this book is a source of interactive fun, it also teaches phonological awareness by allowing readers to play with the first and last syllables in each word.
While this book is a source of interactive fun, it also teaches phonological awareness by allowing readers to play with the first and last syllables in each word.
February 21, 2020
So silly. This is one of those books that tests which kids get certain concepts and which don't. It was fascinating to see the different reactions I got. Some were intent on saying the correct animal. One little girl kept exclaiming "I can't see the body!!" Then there are the ones who got it. They cracked up.
March 12, 2019
This is perfect for toddlers as they will have a lot of fun mixing and matching a handful of farm animals. However, I'm afraid it won't hold up for very long in circulating library collections.
May 11, 2019
Silly mix and match of domestic critters.
December 15, 2019
Delightful. Immediately grabbed the attention of my 4 1/2 month year old. Colorful, engaging illustrations that remix and match. Fun excuse to practice animal sounds and silly words.
July 30, 2022
This is hilarious and adorable. My favorite combos were the ones with the goose head, like "goomb" (that has the lamb legs).
September 25, 2022
Lots of fun to read and to try to figure out what sounds each mixed animal would make.
February 4, 2017
I was sent a free copy of this book by the publisher Walker Books.
This is a really fun board book which toddlers and young children will love. 'Picken' is a fun mix and match board book featuring seven well known farm animals a calf, lamb, chicken, kitten, piglet, goose and puppy.
The book has a spine on either side and as you can see from the pictures you can open either side to reveal one half of each creature. The idea of the book is for kids to either open up the page revealing the whole animal such as the chicken, or to mix and match the front half and end half of each animal into a brand new creature such as the picken - half piglet/ half chicken. I really love this book as soon as I saw it. I've had mix and match books like these growing up and even when I was older I still enjoyed looking at the funny creatures that came out of these books.
The illustrations are so simple yet vivid and easily show what creature they are. There's no mistaking a goose bottom for the chicken or a puppy with a kitten. What's fun about the images too is there's no black outline as in so many books and they are so simple that young kids could try to recreate them with their own drawings.
The book is a board book but the edges are smoothed down and each page has rounded corners so no chance of harming baby's hands. I really do think it's a great book for the really young. The words displaying the proper name of creatures is easy to read and kids can learn a few words for animals as well as learn some new ones while having a lot of fun looking at how silly some of the creatures look. I have to say that even as an adult right now I still laugh at some of the animals, my favourite being the Chimb - a chicken/lamb combination! Overall a great book for the very young to have a bit of fun and learn a little too.
(pictures can be seen on amazon and my website)
This is a really fun board book which toddlers and young children will love. 'Picken' is a fun mix and match board book featuring seven well known farm animals a calf, lamb, chicken, kitten, piglet, goose and puppy.
The book has a spine on either side and as you can see from the pictures you can open either side to reveal one half of each creature. The idea of the book is for kids to either open up the page revealing the whole animal such as the chicken, or to mix and match the front half and end half of each animal into a brand new creature such as the picken - half piglet/ half chicken. I really love this book as soon as I saw it. I've had mix and match books like these growing up and even when I was older I still enjoyed looking at the funny creatures that came out of these books.
The illustrations are so simple yet vivid and easily show what creature they are. There's no mistaking a goose bottom for the chicken or a puppy with a kitten. What's fun about the images too is there's no black outline as in so many books and they are so simple that young kids could try to recreate them with their own drawings.
The book is a board book but the edges are smoothed down and each page has rounded corners so no chance of harming baby's hands. I really do think it's a great book for the really young. The words displaying the proper name of creatures is easy to read and kids can learn a few words for animals as well as learn some new ones while having a lot of fun looking at how silly some of the creatures look. I have to say that even as an adult right now I still laugh at some of the animals, my favourite being the Chimb - a chicken/lamb combination! Overall a great book for the very young to have a bit of fun and learn a little too.
(pictures can be seen on amazon and my website)
January 7, 2017
This "board book", so named because of its card like pages is the ideal introduction to learning baby animals (with the exception of Chicken and Goose which are thrown in as extra) names, sounding out syllables, and creating just the right level of nonsense for young readers. The concept is simple enough - the book is split down the middle, and so are the names of the baby animals. When you flip one side of the book or another, half an animal picture and half of its name will be revealed. If you like, you can find the matching other half. Or you can have some fun and make up a bunch of crazy named critters. It really is perfect nonsense fun - but it definitely holds potential for genuine learning.
I like the potential to get your toddler thinking - because the pictures are so simple, the letters split up and the characters various this means you can basically ask your little reader to do just about anything with them. Can they find you all the baby animals who have spots on? How many spots do they have? What might the crazy animal eat? There's endless potential for developing thinking and imagination, numeracy skills and just having some fun.
I definitely recommend this board book - I really do like the harder quality to it which makes it feel hard-wearing and more durable. Something a lot of the pictures I have are suffering from a lack of right now! Visually stimulating, imaginative and simple fun. I also recommend taking a look at the similarly themed Crocopotamus version - this was equally excellent!
I received this product from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This did not influence my opinion of the book.
I like the potential to get your toddler thinking - because the pictures are so simple, the letters split up and the characters various this means you can basically ask your little reader to do just about anything with them. Can they find you all the baby animals who have spots on? How many spots do they have? What might the crazy animal eat? There's endless potential for developing thinking and imagination, numeracy skills and just having some fun.
I definitely recommend this board book - I really do like the harder quality to it which makes it feel hard-wearing and more durable. Something a lot of the pictures I have are suffering from a lack of right now! Visually stimulating, imaginative and simple fun. I also recommend taking a look at the similarly themed Crocopotamus version - this was equally excellent!
I received this product from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This did not influence my opinion of the book.
January 9, 2017
This charming book features seven farm animals, but it's split-page design means you can come up with lots of wacky combinations of your own.
What do you get when you cross a piglet and a puppy? A Pippy!
Have you ever seen a Gootten or a Lappy?
Or a Kiglet?!
With it's sturdy easy to manipulate pages, my 2 year old son loved mixing and rearranging the characters, telling me which legs belonged where and laughing at the new names like "Cacken" or "Kippy."
If your child likes things to be in the correct order, fear not, you can also turn the pages to see these little farm animals as nature intended. For the very young child, this could be a good introduction to the book. My son and I read through Picken a few times before we got to the mixing up bit. He enjoyed repeating the names and because of the split design, we were both able to turn pages together to reveal the next farm animal.
See link below for full review including photographs
https://missusbspicturebookreviews.bl...
What do you get when you cross a piglet and a puppy? A Pippy!
Have you ever seen a Gootten or a Lappy?
Or a Kiglet?!
With it's sturdy easy to manipulate pages, my 2 year old son loved mixing and rearranging the characters, telling me which legs belonged where and laughing at the new names like "Cacken" or "Kippy."
If your child likes things to be in the correct order, fear not, you can also turn the pages to see these little farm animals as nature intended. For the very young child, this could be a good introduction to the book. My son and I read through Picken a few times before we got to the mixing up bit. He enjoyed repeating the names and because of the split design, we were both able to turn pages together to reveal the next farm animal.
See link below for full review including photographs
https://missusbspicturebookreviews.bl...
October 16, 2019
Fun! Mix and match the tops and bottoms of animals.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews