I'll Be a Chicken Too

April 1, 2023

PreS-K-In the best "I'll always love you" fashion, a parade of parents and caregivers of every skin color and age shows the transformations they will take on in the name of keeping up with the children. "If you're a baby elephant, / I'll have to grow a trunk./ And if you're striped and smelly, / I suppose I'll be a skunk." The scans are imperfect but adorable: "If you're a slippery snake, / then I will slither smooth and low./ Or perhaps a little fish?/ Then I'll be swimming to and fro." There is a grandfatherly type hanging upside down in a tree, blissfully keeping his small bat charges company, while an elderly woman scampers up a tree, at home among the chimpanzees. Vanderlee's inventive debut invites repeat readings, while the illustrations by Deas unwind in a loose cartoon style that suits the antic pacing, featuring humans and animals bounding across the pages to an exhausted but happy bedtime finish. VERDICT Story hour attendees will quickly learn to chant along, and naming the animals will be a happy side lesson. A title with sweet promise.-Kimberly Olson Fakih

Copyright 2023 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2023
A parent's love for their child is limitless. "If you think that you're a camel, / then I think I'll grow a hump. / If you think that you're a grasshopper, / I'll have to learn to jump!" As children imagine themselves as everything from a dog to a snake, their caregivers play along, too. The illustrations show various families pretending to be different animals, for example, hopping on pogo sticks like kangaroos or holding rolled up papers to their noses to imitate elephants; some kids and adults are even dressed like the animals in question. In the end, we see families cuddled together happily. The story feels similar to Margaret Wise Brown's The Runaway Bunny (1942), with a "wherever you go, I'll go" theme. Deas' warm and cozy illustrations, rendered in watercolor, acrylic, ink, and pencil crayon, depict people diverse in skin tone, body type, and age; an older adult sports tattoos. In one captivating layout, an adult and a child touch noses while swimming with a school of fish, the dotted blues of the ocean adding depth to the scene. Toddlers and adults alike will enjoy sharing this story. (This book was reviewed digitally.) Simple and sweet. (Board book. 0-2)

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