Thursday, March 13, 2008

Chickens on the Go by Aunt Judy

Aunt Judy, Chickens on the Go!, Petrolia, Ontario, Brown’s Graphic’s and Printing Inc., 2006



In her fantasy/fiction book Chickens on the Go! , Aunt Judy emphasizes differences in “chickens” around the world and promotes the embracing of diversity. With a universal setting and multicultural characters, the book is limitless in its audience. The plot examines many different cultures around the world, but also shows that they can live peacefully together. The illustrations are simple and cartoon-like, but still fun and entertaining. The illustrations have very thick lines and bright colors, which expresses the boldness of the text.

This book is very age appropriate for children, as it explores the critically important social theme of embracing diversity. The author uses a fun rhyme scheme, which makes it entertaining to read as well. After examining each particular culture, the author repeatedly uses the phrase “It doesn’t matter where we’re from. We’re all chickens---let’s have fun!” which highlights her main point of living peacefully and having fun with people of any culture, because underneath the outer appearances, they are all just “chickens.” This book is a good tool for teaching students about differences and how they really do not determine a person’s character or worth as a friend. Also, using the name Aunt Judy makes the book more inviting and comfortable.

1 comment:

Valerie W. said...

I agree that this is a fun book that emphasizes universal respect for others. We also talked about how one would want more complex representations of people from different cultures in one's library as well. As you commented, there's a fine line between iconic and stereotypical!