Chicky Chicky Chook Chook

by Cathy MacLennan

What a great read-aloud, sing-aloud, shout-aloud book this is, with its fun-to-imitate animal sounds and rhythmic rhyme. Bright yellow chicks, golden bees, and striped kitty-cats play in the warm sunshine, clucking and buzzing and skitty-scatting. Then they rest, snoozy-woozy. But what is this? The pitter-patter of raindrops. Now the crash, bang, wallop of a storm—how will they get dry? Soon the sun and sweet breezes come out again. Wonderfully textured art (you can practically feel the cats’ fur and the chicks’ softness), as well as a sleepytime ending, will make this a favorite to read again and again.

Genres: Picture Books, Animals, Storytime, Childrens, Poetry, Fiction, Juvenile

32 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[Elaine]

Children requested an encore with this book at story time!

[Pieteke Hall]

A Great book if you are looking at phase one high quality phonics!
It has a great rhythm, alliteration and rhyming.

[J-Lynn Van Pelt]

A read aloud for young children, this book is FULL of rhyming word play, alliteration, sound effects, and onomatopoeia. Also, children will love saying the repetitive lines with you. An example page: "Chick, chicky, chook chook. Chick, chick chick. Chicky, chicky, chook chook, peck...peck...pick." Great for developing pre-reader's phonological awareness.

The illustrations are drawn on a background that looks like a brown, paper bag which makes the yellows, orange, blues, and green really pop. The whimsical cartoon pictures of fluffy animals seem to burst off the page.

[Malbadeen]

First page:

Chicky, chicky, chook, chook.
Chicky, chicky, chook, chook,
peck...peck...pick.

need I say more?

okay...second page:

Fizzy, fizzy, buzz, buzz,
fizz, fizz, buzz.
Fizzy, fizzy, buzz, buzz,
busy...
busy...
buzzzzzzzzzz

You're on your own for the rest and it's worth it.

[Emma Hamilton]

Great book to use in KS1- particularly reception as it could be used to link in with learning about chicks and their lives- link to growing up.
Drama strategies as children could reenact particular elements of the story and even have a hot seating session where a child pretends to be a chick and the rest of the get to ask them questions about the story and their feelings at different times.

Speaking, spelling and phonics- The beginning would be good to use in a phonics lesson as it revolves around lots of different sounds; ch, p, f, zz. The children would be able to engage with it as it is interactive and the illustrations are detailed and fun. Could be used in a shared reading session or just a story time during the day.

[Tracy Schillemore]

This isn't a plot based book but it does have a lot of fun words to read. Might work for preschool.

[Catherine]

This is my grandson's favourite book. The art work is enchanting. He loves the verse. My son and his wife read this every evening.

Read to him last night and in future. any time he wants.

[J]

Fun, strange book. The kittens look like they're part spider because of their legs. They're still very cute.

[charlene.librarian]

With bold illustration that's full of texture, MacLennan writes and journey of sound and movement which most children will enjoy immensely.

[Kristen Thorp]

160/365

[Laura Bennett]

A very fun book for younger children filled with rhyme, alliteration and onomatopoeia (so great to use in an English lesson too!). Children will love joining in with this book at story time!

[Emily]

Wonderfully rhythmic and fun to read aloud.

[Nichole]

Fun sounds-- lots of alliteration, rhyming, and tongue-tieing.

[Angie Quantrell]

Very fun word play!

[Cassander1]

Fun to read! I played with the rhythm with every reading. Great spring book! Kids got bored of it after awhile, maybe because of the loose plot.

[Laura]

I really wish there was a song to go with this book or even actions. This would be a great storytime book to read to kids.

[Lorellie]

Tot liked this well enough. The illustrative style is fun. It's not much of a story, more of a wordy song.

[Carla]

So Chicky Chicky Cute

[Christy]

What a great read-aloud, sing-aloud, shout-aloud book this is, with its fun-to-imitate animal sounds and rhythmic rhyme. Bright yellow chicks, golden bees, and striped kitty-cats play in the warm sunshine, clucking and buzzing and skitty-scatting. Then they rest, snoozy-woozy. But what is this? The pitter-patter of raindrops. Now the crash, bang, wallop of a storm—how will they get dry? Soon the sun and sweet breezes come out again. Wonderfully textured art (you can practically feel the cats’ fur and the chicks’ softness), as well as a sleepytime ending, will make this a favorite to read again and again.

[Elizabeth Sherry]

This book was a lot different than most picture books, but in a good way. There is not really a plot but is still a really fun book to be read aloud to children ages 3 to about 5 or 6. The text is almost entirely made up of animal sounds and other sound effects. It is a rhyming book and is almost a tongue twister to read aloud but I really think children would love to say the catchy phrases along with the teacher. They would probably be saying these fun phrases for the rest of the day after reading this! Just so you know exactly what I mean, here is the text from the first page: "chicky, chicky, chook chook. chick, chick chick. chicky, chicky, chook chook, peck…peck…pick." Each page is filled with fun sounds like this one. It also deals a lot with the basics of weather, talking about how the rain makes things wet and the sun is hot and can dry animals as well as wind. This would also be a perfect book to read aloud, or sing aloud, while students act out each page. You could put children in small groups and they each get a page to act out and sing along with the teacher. You could read/sing this book tons of different ways, it is up to you to be creative! I also thought the pictures were wonderful. Maclennan used a light brown background with lots of yellows, blues, and whites that really popped on the page. The illustrations were very fun and go right along with the sound effects. Young kids would fall in love with this book.

[Amy]

I hope that my four star rating of this book is accurate, because I read it to kids that I'm not sure it's meant for. Chicky Chicky Chook Chook is certainly well below my niece's reading level, but she was pulled into the story. My nephew is really more into Spider-man than fluffy baby chicks, but he was also pulled into the story. Why?

This book was all about the sound of language, and about how words can be strung together to form really musical, rhythmic sentences. Our voices can create music without us ever having to sing a note (which, in my case, is a very good thing). I think that my niece and nephew responded to the sound of this book. I like it when books try to do more than just tell a story--I like it when they teach kids about language, and when they inspire creativity.

My niece and nephew can still be captivated by the sound of language, but as I read this book I was really wondering how babies who are just experimenting with the sounds that come out of their own mouths would respond to this book. I'm torn between thinking that babies might find all of these sounds so interesting, and thinking that this book might only end up covered in baby drool. Honestly, it's a toss up.

[Karen]

I might have liked this book a whole lot more if I had read it to my son a year or so ago. At four-and-a-half, he liked the onomatopeia and repetition of sound. He didn't like that there was "no story". In fact, he didn't even count this book as one of his three stories for the night, so we had to read another one.

The artwork, again, he might have liked more when he was younger. He liked the animals chosen for the illustrations. He liked the bright colors and the dynamics on the pages. He just didn't like the way the animals were illustrated. Apparently, his taste in artwork is a little more sophisticated.

I did have to look up to see the recommended ages for this book -- 3 to 6. He should have been well within the range, but he found it too young. If I were still a children's librarian, I would recommend this book for ages 2 to 4. I think the right audience would really enjoy it.

[Deb]

It's a day in the life story, condensed. Birds, bees, cats are enjoying a day of sun when a thunderstorm catches them by surprise while they are napping and gets them all bedraggled wet: "Sticky, icky, chicky. Soggy, groggy, moggy. Wet. Wet. Wet." Then the sun comes back out with a breeze and they dry out. The illustrations of wet and fluffed out dry are hilarious. I was right in thinking this would appeal to the 11mo. old, for the fun sounds of words. I think it is best enjoyed hearing it read aloud. The 7 yr old loved it too, laughing and reading it aloud after me. She was the first to notice that the cover has fuzzy touchable chick illustrations. I look forward to tracking down the other books by this author.

[Rochelle Sondae]

I first heard this book read by 2 young girls in our book section. They were reading it in the round. It was hilarious. They each held a copy and after the first girl finished the first page the second girl started reading. By the end of the book they were nearly yelling the words and trying not to laugh to hard. I can't say that my reading was nearly as fun. Needless to say it will always have a place on our shelves thanks to two boisterous girls.

[Ali Hembree]

This book has a rhythm in which when you read it, you fall into.

I could use this book to teach about how some books have a rhythm to it when you read it. Also, you can use it in a science lesson to teach about different weather and animals. The weather is described by their characteristics for example, the rain makes things wet, the sun dries things up, and the wind blows things over.

[Destiny Dawn Long]

This book is so much fun to read. It's rhythmic and full of onomatopoeia and rhyme. My daughter loved the play of language. She's really into the sound of words right now, and this was full of great sounds. I think it's the sort of book that even older kids will have fun with because of the sound of the text. It's a great way to expose children to how playful language can be.

[Cindi]

The words and sounds and rhythms in this book are very fun. I told my two year old that we were going to take it back to the library. Today, about five days later, he asked about it. Time to check it out again! :)

[Danie P.]

Great book to use during storytime with egg shakers to help teach rhythm to children. Many different sounds a cute illustrations. Reminder to self: Make chickens with yellow paint and cotton balls on grocery store bags.

[April Hochstrasser]

What a fun book. Every page is filled with a mouthful of fun syllables that generally don't mean much but are so fun to say. Try saying "Chicky chicky chook chook." Doesn't it just make you want to laugh out loud? For ages 1-4

[Ashley Wampler]

Chicky Chicky Chook Chook is an interesting book. It does not have a plot exactly, but rather is a play on a lot of similar sounding words. It is almost written as a tongue twister, but would be great when working with students on words that look similar to one another.