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Chanticleer and the Fox
by
King of the barnyard, Chanticleer struts about all day. When a fox bursts into his domain, dupes him into crowing, and then grabs him in a viselike grip, Chanticleer must do some quick thinking to save himself and his barnyard kingdom.
Paperback, 44 pages
Published
November 1st 1982
by HarperCollins
(first published 1958)
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I enjoyed this tale. I also enjoyed the Canterbury Tales in school and this is adapted from Nun's Priests Tale. For once the fox is outsmarted by someone else. How about them apples. Chanticleer is a beautiful rooster. I think the page with detail of him is really beautiful. I can't say I'm a huge fan of roosters, but it makes for a good tale.
The artwork here reminds me of Sleeping Beauty and that time period.
I did read this to the kids and they thought it was good too. They gave it 4 stars. Th ...more
The artwork here reminds me of Sleeping Beauty and that time period.
I did read this to the kids and they thought it was good too. They gave it 4 stars. Th ...more

I find it interesting that so many of the comments on this book were about the vocabulary being too big (azure, sow, debonair) and the story being too long to hold the attention of small children. I think this speaks to the fact that in our rush to get children to read chapter books, we stop reading them picture books by the time they are 6 or 7. That wasn't true when this book was printed (1959). Even after kids learned to read, parent and teachers continued to read picture books to kids. And t
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Another Caldecott winner. This one based on one of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. It's been so long I don't remember the original tale. The illustrations are charming if not too detailed. The story of this proud rooster didn't do much for me. I didn't particularly care what happened to Chanticleer, the gorgeous, proud rooster 🐔 with 7 wives 🙄, although I do like stories about outsmarting foxes. 🐺 We did get to practice some new words though - azure, sow, grove. I enjoyed reading it a bit more than
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I enjoyed "Chanticleer" though I'm not sure it will be especially memorable for me. I'm already a Barbara Cooney fan and I thought her illustrations were great--a delightful blend of bold and realistic with a touch of softness and charm. One of my favorite illustrations includes the daughter hugging the sheep--so sweet! I haven't read the original, so I can't compare, but felt that the adaptation was fairly readable and relatable for modern children but also retained a bit of it's old world flav ...more

Alas, my Wednesday Night Working with Celeste on the Kids Floor will be moved to Thursdays, until further notice.
I don't know what other books were competing for the Caldecot for 1958, but this book is really charming.
I like the bold graphics and simple colors, but the detail and clean lines were beautiful.
A cute Aesop-ish tale, taken and adapted from the Canterbury Tales. The story itself is deeper than many picture books today. I liked that it actually had difficult vocabulary words as it's ...more
I don't know what other books were competing for the Caldecot for 1958, but this book is really charming.
I like the bold graphics and simple colors, but the detail and clean lines were beautiful.
A cute Aesop-ish tale, taken and adapted from the Canterbury Tales. The story itself is deeper than many picture books today. I liked that it actually had difficult vocabulary words as it's ...more

My 6 year old son, Daniel, says, "I loved all the animals! 5 stars!".
...more

Summary and Critique:
Barbara Cooney tells a traditional tale of the sly fox luring in his prey. It followed common themes of trickery and defeat as the story developed, leaving a triumphant, and much wiser rooster to return to his flock. Being a Caldecott Medal Winner, this children’s book features strong illustrations. All of the illustrations in the book use the same pallet of four colors: green, azure, coral, and burnished gold. These colors are highlighted when describing the rooster’s appea ...more
Barbara Cooney tells a traditional tale of the sly fox luring in his prey. It followed common themes of trickery and defeat as the story developed, leaving a triumphant, and much wiser rooster to return to his flock. Being a Caldecott Medal Winner, this children’s book features strong illustrations. All of the illustrations in the book use the same pallet of four colors: green, azure, coral, and burnished gold. These colors are highlighted when describing the rooster’s appea ...more

Not my favorite Caldecott. It's language is quite difficult so if you are reading this to younger children you may need to change the words to ones they can understand. If I were going to use this in a classroom I would use it in older grades. Possibly 5th grade and up. When I taught 7th and 8th grade Literature, I often used picture book to help simplify teaching more difficult literary elements. The pictures are old world style and are different than many other books I have read. 3 stars.
...more

The illustrations in this book are beautiful! It definitely deserved the Caldecott Medal. The pictures fit the story so well, and I love the style and the bright colors.
It would never have occurred to me to adapt Chaucer into a children's book. Although my three-year-old son didn't find the story terribly interesting (except for the naughty fox), it was a nice change of pace for me. ...more
It would never have occurred to me to adapt Chaucer into a children's book. Although my three-year-old son didn't find the story terribly interesting (except for the naughty fox), it was a nice change of pace for me. ...more

Sep 03, 2019
Stacy M. Patton
rated it
really liked it
Shelves:
caldecott-medal,
children-picture-books
——-Caldecott Winner: 1959——
We enjoyed this story about the rooster who was persuaded to sing when the fox slyly complements his singing ability. I love this wisdom this book provides. This was a little over the head of my kindergartener but it was perfect for my fifth grader! So, I’ll read it again to my kindergartener when he is in fifth grade!
We enjoyed this story about the rooster who was persuaded to sing when the fox slyly complements his singing ability. I love this wisdom this book provides. This was a little over the head of my kindergartener but it was perfect for my fifth grader! So, I’ll read it again to my kindergartener when he is in fifth grade!

Book summary: This is a book about a widow and her two daughters who live on a small farm with one sheep, three cows, three pigs, a rooster named Chanticleer and had seven hens by his side. This is an award winning book about how the rooster had a bad dream that a fox would grab him by the neck. Then one day he sees a fox who approaches him and just explains that he wants to hear him sing like his father. with his neck strectched out and his eyes closed. When the rooster did this the fox grabbed
...more

Canticleer and The Fox is a book about a proud rooster names Chanticleer who has a very beautiful voice and because of this is kidnapped by a Fox. The lesson behind this story is clearly stated towards the end of the book stating, “God bring misfortune to him who is too careless about his self- control as to prattle when he should hold his peace.” After reading this book I wasn’t very overjoyed about its storyline or conclusion. It was anticlimactic and ended abruptly. Many books today have unex
...more

This re-telling of one of Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, brilliantly adapted and illustrated by Barbara Cooney, has within it the makings of a wonderful read-aloud experience for both child and adult. Cooney gives us Chaucer’s tale of Chanticleer, the vain (and prophetic) rooster captured by a fox due to his egotism, only to find he is later able to escape by playing to the fox’s own sense of self-importance. As Chanticleer has learned his lesson, he is unable to be persuaded by the fox to
...more

Chanticleer and the fox by Cooney Barbara
Genre: picture book Reading level: 1-6 grade Format: good
Reading the picture book Chanticleer And The Fox by Geoffrey Chaucer and illustrated by Barbara Cooney I came to realize that when the characters felt sad, scared, or out of place the picture illustrations had no color and where just black and white. But when the characters where happy the picture illustrations had color demonstrating the characters mood. Having the picture illustrations shown in ...more
Genre: picture book Reading level: 1-6 grade Format: good
Reading the picture book Chanticleer And The Fox by Geoffrey Chaucer and illustrated by Barbara Cooney I came to realize that when the characters felt sad, scared, or out of place the picture illustrations had no color and where just black and white. But when the characters where happy the picture illustrations had color demonstrating the characters mood. Having the picture illustrations shown in ...more

1959 Caldecott Medal Winner
Very cool medieval-style illustrations in this one. It says on one of the cover flaps that the illustrator studied illuminated manuscripts and borrowed some chickens in order to make these pictures. Nice! I'm still not sure how the illustrators make those solid colors--this one uses mostly blue, red, green, gold, and brown for the fox. The colors all look so solid that I'm not sure how they're done. I think the black is ink, though.
Pretty simple story lifted from Chauc ...more
Very cool medieval-style illustrations in this one. It says on one of the cover flaps that the illustrator studied illuminated manuscripts and borrowed some chickens in order to make these pictures. Nice! I'm still not sure how the illustrators make those solid colors--this one uses mostly blue, red, green, gold, and brown for the fox. The colors all look so solid that I'm not sure how they're done. I think the black is ink, though.
Pretty simple story lifted from Chauc ...more

So I have had this sitting on my shelf for a long time. Actually this is the second copy I have owned. Today I pulled it off the shelf because someone mentioned reading Walter Wangerin's The Book of Sorrows which is the sequel of The Book of the Dun Cow which also has Chanticleer in it. These books reveal to me the depth of redeeming my education needs. Chanticleer is a character from the Canterbury Tales which I have never read but intend to but at this point I feel this children's book is abou
...more

Returning to this Caldecott Medal-winning book was a pleasure. I can remember reading this book when I was a child and being intrigued by the ornate artwork and the book's message about being wary of flatterers. As I read it again, the same pleasure I experienced initially returned to me, and I worried for the rooster while also laughing at how he turns the tables on the fox who plans to eat him for dinner. By opening his mouth when he shouldn't, he loses that succulent meal. I love the black an
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Cooney does a great job retelling this humorous Chaucer story, with a clever moral at the end. It is rather wordy, and so most suitable for elementary age children. The drawings are well executed and appealing. Some of the drawings are black ink only; others have been colored with bold, bright reds, greens, yellows, and other colors. The words and pictures are woven together into a seamless whole, making this one of my favorite of the Caldecott award-winning books.

I love the color scheme of the illustrations in this book, and how certain patches of color are used to draw the eye across the page in a particular way. I've never been crazy about the story itself, but I like the way the mother uses a moment of drama between animals as a way to teach her kids a lesson. I also think the cover illustration is great - the fox peeking out of the bush at Chanticleer tells us so much about the story to come.
...more

I read this book as one of our January GR children's book groups. I respect Barbara Cooney's work and wanted to have this Caldecott for my collection. The story is an old Chaucer tale of a rooster who flaunts his good looks too much and is caught by a fox. Cooney's illustrations fit the story well. The moral of the story is one most children will learn from and provides a good discussion base for a family. Good story, great pictures.
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An adaptation of one of the Canterbury Tales, of whose original version I have not read. I'm not sure if that makes a difference, because this was a fun and readable version. My son is three, so while I did read the whole book out once, I repeated it again in words that he could understand and showed him the pictures. The illustrations themselves were lovely with simple colors, and we enjoyed the experience quite a bit.
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Beautiful book, but too old fashioned to hold my son's interest.
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