Chicks and Salsa

by Aaron Reynolds, Paulette Bogan (Illustrations)

With whimsical illustrations by Paulette Bogan, Aaron Reynolds has created a hilarious picture book about one rooster's quest for culinary delight.

What happens at Nuthatcher Farm when the chickens get tired of the same old chicken feed? The rooster hatches a plan, of course! With a pinch of genius, a dash of resourcefulness, and a little pilfering from the farmer's garden, the chickens whip up a scrumptious snack of chips and salsa. When the rest of the barnyard gets a whiff of the spicy smells and want to join in, it can mean only one thing . . . FIESTA! But when the big day arrives, all their spicy southwestern supplies are gone! It seems that Mr. and Mrs. Nuthatcher have caught on to the flavor craze as well, and the only thing left for the animals to do is to try a new culinary style-ooh la la!

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Animals, Food, Storytime, Humor, Fiction

32 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Aaron Reynolds is a New York Times Bestselling Author of many highly acclaimed books for kids, including Dude!, Creepy Carrots!, Creepy Pair of Underwear!, Nerdy Birdy, and tons more. He frequently visits schools and his highly participatory presentations are a blast for kids and teachers alike. He lives in the Chicago area with his wife, two kids, four cats, and between three and ten fish, depending on the day.

(source: Amazon)

Reviews

[Steve Holden · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had a strange day where I was helping and rotating classrooms some today, and found myself with a new book and craft in a different room. This is a cute book, and the students associated it with a themed unit where they completed a fun craft upon finishing. It introduces some new terms, has a fun, silly premise, and is repetitive. I'm happy I checked it out and may use this some myself in the classroom.

[Caitlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love reading this one for storytime because the story is fun and educational-adjacent. And by education, I mean you will learn how to make salsa. The kiddos will love to say “Ole” along with the barnyard friends.

[Brittany · Rating 4 out of 5]

The barnyard animals find a way to spice up their hum-drum everyday food. Cute story about spicing things up around the farm!

[Deb · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fun book. The humor is just right. I love the "nobody was quite certain" parts. It's a fun way to address the possible difficulty of suspending disbelief. Fiesta! Ole! I'm going to look for more books for Alena written by this author.

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chickens, ducks, and pigs find a way to spice up their traditional slop food by adding a few special ingredients! The hilarious and bold watercolor illustrations really make this book come alive for me. Also, this book could be a vocabulary word study text, as it has some excellent words: aromas, satisfied, cuisine, enticing, pilfered, sumptuous, and savory. The sneaky mice in this book bring a special element to the plot; on every page, you can see that they are involved in some sort of spy work or bargaining. It would be really fun to read this with a child and read in unison each time the animals shout, "Olé!" This is one of my favorite farm-themed picture books.

[Sheniqua · Rating 5 out of 5]

The chickens of Nuthatcher Farm were sick of chicken feed, so the rooster stepped in to solve this problem himself. The chickens along with the rooster began sneaking into the garden for tomatoes and onions to make a much more exciting and satisfying meal: salsa. Eventually word spread and even the ducks and pigs began creating their own dish. I love the humor in the book especially when the bull practices his dance for the fiesta but no one knows where he got the sombrero from. I love the vividly illustrated pictures and how the recipes are included in the back. This story would be great to teach sequencing and fractions using the recipes in the back.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about farm animals who get tired of their normal food. I like using this book with my ESL students because it has repetition and many new vocabulary words. It also has many dishes that my Latino students are familiar and they get excited when they read/hear them. Then, they always want to make a personal connection to the story as well. This book can range from late primary to upper elementary (because of some of the higher level vocabulary terms.)

[Katherine Rue · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book relies on tired cliches about both culture and gender (and aesthetically revolting art), to tell its story. If you want a funny children's book about farm animals, I suggest "Click, Clack, Moo"

[BiblioBeruthiel · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this and thought "Is this vaguely racist?" One of the other reviews put it better by saying that it really plays into cultural stereotypes in a way that makes me uncomfortable. Especially in the art.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

So cute and quirky!

[Melanie Moncrief · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is about the chickens being tired of eating chicken feed. The rooster was watching cooking shows through the farmers wife's window and came up with a solution. "Salsa" is what he said. The chicken went to the garden and got tomatoes and onion and that night they had salsa and chips. The ducks on the farm said that they were tired of eating fish, so they gather the supplies and made guacamole. The pigs were tired of slop so made nachos. They had a fiesta. The different animals had different jobs to get ready for the fiesta. When the animals went to gather the ingredients for the enchiladas. All of the ingredients were gone because the farmer and his wife were making tamales. The animals canceled the fiesta. Then the rooster made some French foo from seeing a recipe. This is a really good book. I can have lots of fun reading this book to my students. The book has two recipes in the back that the students can make in the classroom. The book leaves an open ending to what French cuisine the animals will make next. It also gives the teacher a chance to expand on food in other cultures. A classroom cookbook would be a fun activity to go along with this book. The students can use it to make snacks for the classroom. I can use this book for so many things.

[Becky · Rating 5 out of 5]

First sentence: There were grumblings in the henhouse of Nuthatcher Farm. The chickens were tired of chicken feed. The rooster took it upon himself to solve this problem. Mrs. Nuthatcher, the farmer's wife, had started watching cooking shows in the afternoons. The rooster was perched on a fence post outside the farmhouse window when he discovered the solution to his problem...salsa!

Premise/plot: Things at Nuthatcher Farm are about to get SPICY. It all begins with chickens who are BORED with their chicken feed. But this discontent soon spreads far and wide...will the Rooster be able to keep saving the day?!

My thoughts: I absolutely LOVED this one. I did. It was cute and funny. I loved the narration, the writing.

Led by the rooster, the chickens crept into the garden, where they took tomatoes and uprooted onions. That night, the chickens ate chips and salsa--though nobody was quite certain where the chickens got the chips. The tasty tang of tomatoes and onions hung over the barnyard. And the rooster said, "Olé!"

This is a treat of a book.

Text: 5 out of 5
Illustrations: 3 out of 5
Total: 8 out of 10

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

After the huge success at home of the two Creepy books, I decided to see what else Aaron Reynolds had written. Chicks and Salsa was one of the three books we picked up in addition to Nerdy Birdy and Dude!

Chicks and Salsa is a fun book to read. Besides the immediate story, there is a lot going on in the background (such as the mice who are selling hard to find items like chips, avocados, etc.) that make repeated readings fun. Another aspect of this book that I enjoyed is, when each recipe is complete, the rooster strikes a pose and says Ole! My four-year-old son and I do this as well which makes the book even more fun. At the end of the book, there is a twist where the rooster makes crepes and says Ooh la la! with a kissing of the fingers. It's a great deal of fun to watch a four-year-old make these poses and say these phrases!

[Heather Gettys]

Reynolds, A. (2005). Chicks and Salsa. New York, NY: Bloomsbury Publishing.

The chickens where tired of their food so the rooster set out to solve the problem. He gets an idea and provides them with chips and salsa. This creates an effect, inspiring the other barnyard animals to try something different from guacamole to nachos! This then inspired all of them to plan a fiesta only to be hit with a surprise, the humans have stolen all their ingredients. Furious, the rooster sneaks into the humans’ kitchen and creates a new authentic meal

This book is so cute and great for a childs imagination! The overall theme is the willingness to try something completely new. The media within really portrays the different food types the animals eat, for example the rooster is wearing a parka!

I think really the only way I can implement this into my class is use it as a "fun book" because there really isn't any central meaning to it .

[Christianna Lapine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a story about chickens from the Nuthatcher Farm. They decide that they are sick of eating the same chicken feed every day, so the roaster decides to step in and fix the problem himself. The chickens come together and begin to go into the garden to find things like onions and tomatoes. They find out that they can make something exciting, like salsa! Soon, the ducks and the pigs began to make their own dishes. This book has humor and wit that bring in positivity for the reader. There is a decent amount of advanced vocabularies such as aroma and cuisine. I think that this would make a good addition within a group of readers who are at the 2nd and 3rd-grade level. As fun as this is, I would not put it in my personal library. I think that there are a subtle message and more of an enjoyable book rather than a teachable message.

[Darla · Rating 5 out of 5]

The animals on Nuthatcher Farm are bored with their usual cuisine. A peek at a cooking show gets rooster in the mood for salsa. Ole'! Soon the ducks are making guacamole and the pigs are indulging in nachos. They start planning a barnyard fiesta and the bull is perfecting his Mexican hat dance. The plans come to a screeching halt when they realize the garden produce has all been harvested. It's back to the same old, same old for dinner that night. Perhaps all is not lost. Rooster has discovered a French cookbook. Wait! How did rooster learn how to read??? Ooh la la! While reading see if you can figure out how the animals are obtaining their chips and other nongarden supplies. . .🐔🐖🐄🐀

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining book, “first” about those chickens! Tired of the same old feed, the rooster spies one idea when looking through the window at a tv cooking show--SALSA. The chickens raid the garden of tomatoes and onions, and that night they ate chips and salsa, “though no one was quite certain where the chickens got the chips.” You’ll have to read the book to discover how that happened, along with the ducks' and the pigs' newfound fare. There’s a hilarious ending, too. Aaron Reynolds tells a tall tale while Paulette Bogan enriches it with her terrific illustrations

[Tatiana Ensz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading Levels
DRA: 24
Lexile: AD860L

Explanation of Star Rating: I gave this book three stars because there is no real meaning to the book, it is just about chickens who love salsa a rooster whose passionate in culinary and their adventures. I don't know the intention behind writing this book but I did get a good laugh out of it. I definitely give the title five stars, super cute!

Most standout trait(s): Sentence Fluency

[Mama Bearian · Rating 3 out of 5]

The chickens are tired of chicken feed, so when the rooster sees Mrs. Huthatcher watching a cooking show about making salsa, he gets an idea. Salsa! Then, the ducks are tired of their fish, and the pigs are tired of their slop, and the barnyard plans a fiesta. It's a cute book without much of a message.

[Pamela Powell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Adorable! Fun, farmyard illustrations make this cute story even better. The chickens are tired of chicken feed so the rooster decides to make salsa. So begins a cascade of dissatisfied farm animals raiding the garden for ingredients to make something new. Keep your eye on the mice!

[Jean Doolittle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delightful and funny! All the animals on the Nuthatcher farm get a hankering for Southwestern cuisine and raid the garden for tomatoes and peppers. The backstory told through the illustrations let us in on where the chips and avocados come from! Ole!!

[Amy the book-bat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cute, funny story that even has some recipes included. The barnyard animals are bored with their regular food and the rooster discovers how to make salsa... now I'm hungry for tacos or nachos or something similar.

[Katelin Schroeder · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this book up at a garage sale for only $0.25, I picked it out b/c I liked the cover! the book was good, I read it to my 2nd graders and they enjoyed it. I, however, thought it was just okay.

[Theresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chicks and Salsa (Paperback)
by Aaron Reynolds
Changing their lives from boredom Chicken influences the rest of the barn yard by adding salsa to their food. Its a cute story of cultural acceptance.

[Laura McLoughlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty silly book for a chicken themed story time.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute story and pictures.

[Donna Mork · Rating 4 out of 5]

Various animals on the farm are tired of their usual food. So they make salsa. And then guacamole. And then nachos. Finally the farmer joins in and makes tamales.

[Kate Matheis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is super fun! It even gives recipes to the dishes the animals make. It has a fun twist at the end. I would definitely read this to my class.

[Eleanor W · Rating 3 out of 5]

Silly little book that had us giggling a few times :)

[The Brothers · Rating 3 out of 5]

The farm animals (starting with the chickens on Nuthatcher farm are tired of the food they've been eating, so they all decide to try Mexican cuisine!

Illustrations are ok.