Now you are a chicken by Andrew McDonald & Ben Wood

A very funny, read aloud and joining-in book has a wizard showing a chicken how she turns people into chickens. The wizard invites readers to watch how easy it is, and she brings on an example chicken to show us. But the example chicken is not happy, especially when the wizard uses her as a model to show the readers what to expect when she turns them into a chicken. They can expect to have funny red bits, a hard, beaky nose and soft feathery wings. But the chicken is still not happy, and just when the wizard is about to say the magic words to the reader, the chicken stops her, insisting that she send a warning for those who do not want to be turned into a chicken.  Example chicken tells the wizard how she used to be a banana and the wizard changed her without a warning. But says the wizard, just look at all the traits the chicken now has. She can fly, run fast, and lay eggs. 

Example chicken brings up another query, what if no one believes she can do it? Wizard then changes a snail, carrot and balloon into chickens. 

But says the chicken, the one word bringing an exasperated response from the wizard, as she gets ready to change the audience into chickens.

A wonderful read aloud, kids will be flapping, clucking, scratching and walking on imagined spindly legs, searching for a worm to eat. They will squawk, and try to fly, roost on the library pillows, and cluck their way around the room. They will love the twist in the tale after they have all been made into chickens, and laugh out loud at the green chicken with a wizard’s hat.

The wonderfull illustrations show a frustrated wizard trying to show us how we need to be made into a chicken. Her sparkling green hair and mouth full of teeth will thrill readers as they follower her exploits. Her speech is presented in differing frames, showing how she is feeling as she tries to talk the chicken into being an example.  The bold illustrations will be eagerly followed by the readers, concentrating on the two characters, without any background to take their eyes from the story. I love the way the chicken and wizard sometimes talk to the audience, bringing them into an aspect of the story. And the whole is a hoot of a story for acting out as it is read.

Themes: Imagination, Chickens, Wizards.

Fran Knight