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Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?
We all know the joke. We've all told it. Kids love to tell it over and over and over again, with as many different punch lines as possible. And now we've found out that famous award-winning artists love to tell the joke too—and they have some wacky and downright hilarious ideas about why that chicken really did cross the road. Mo Willems's chicken confesses his motives to a police officer; David Shannon's chicken can drive a car; Marla Frazee's chicken is looking for a more luxurious coop; and Harry Bliss's chicken encounters aliens. And this is just the beginning. One thing is for sure—you won't cross this book without a good laugh!
40 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2006
6 people are currently reading
320 people want to read
About the author
Jon Agee
53 books163 followersI grew up in Nyack, New York, just up the street from the Hudson River. In our house, there was always an art project going on.
My early drawings were very animated: a lot of stuff zipping around, airplanes, racing cars, football players. No surprise my first published drawing was a pack of rats running along a highway (The Rat Race). I did that for the New York Times Op Ed page when I was still in high school.
I went to college at The Cooper Union School of Art in New York City. I studied painting, sculpture and filmmaking, but what I loved doing most—in my spare time—was drawing cartoons and comic strips.
When I graduated, I hauled my pile of doodles into the offices of a bunch of editors, with the wild notion that somebody might publish them. When that failed, I wrote a story for kids to go with my pictures (If Snow Falls). It was two sentences long (which counts, by the way). Frances Foster, a wonderful editor at Random House, saw something in that book and signed me up.
The next book, Ellsworth, was about a dog who teaches economics at a university. When he gets home, he throws off his clothes and acts like a dog, which is fine, until some fellow teachers discover this and he loses his job. Somebody told me that Ellsworth was a story about "being yourself." I never realized it had a moral.
I moved to another publisher with Ludlow Laughs, the story of a grumpy guy who laughs in his sleep. This book was doing very poorly until the comedienne Phyliss Diller read it on PBS's Reading Rainbow. It stayed in print for over twenty years.
My fourth book, The Incredible Painting of Felix Clousseau, was a hit. One of the first people to see it and give it the thumb's up—literally, hot off the press—was Maurice Sendak. We bumped into each other at the printers. It was a lucky first meeting, and happily not our last.
That was all a long time ago. Since then I've written many other picture books, illustrated a few by other authors, and created a series of offbeat wordplay books, beginning with the book of palindromes, Go Hang a Salami! I'm a Lasagna Hog!
I visit schools across the country and sometimes around the globe. I live with my wife, Audrey, in San Francisco.
My early drawings were very animated: a lot of stuff zipping around, airplanes, racing cars, football players. No surprise my first published drawing was a pack of rats running along a highway (The Rat Race). I did that for the New York Times Op Ed page when I was still in high school.
I went to college at The Cooper Union School of Art in New York City. I studied painting, sculpture and filmmaking, but what I loved doing most—in my spare time—was drawing cartoons and comic strips.
When I graduated, I hauled my pile of doodles into the offices of a bunch of editors, with the wild notion that somebody might publish them. When that failed, I wrote a story for kids to go with my pictures (If Snow Falls). It was two sentences long (which counts, by the way). Frances Foster, a wonderful editor at Random House, saw something in that book and signed me up.
The next book, Ellsworth, was about a dog who teaches economics at a university. When he gets home, he throws off his clothes and acts like a dog, which is fine, until some fellow teachers discover this and he loses his job. Somebody told me that Ellsworth was a story about "being yourself." I never realized it had a moral.
I moved to another publisher with Ludlow Laughs, the story of a grumpy guy who laughs in his sleep. This book was doing very poorly until the comedienne Phyliss Diller read it on PBS's Reading Rainbow. It stayed in print for over twenty years.
My fourth book, The Incredible Painting of Felix Clousseau, was a hit. One of the first people to see it and give it the thumb's up—literally, hot off the press—was Maurice Sendak. We bumped into each other at the printers. It was a lucky first meeting, and happily not our last.
That was all a long time ago. Since then I've written many other picture books, illustrated a few by other authors, and created a series of offbeat wordplay books, beginning with the book of palindromes, Go Hang a Salami! I'm a Lasagna Hog!
I visit schools across the country and sometimes around the globe. I live with my wife, Audrey, in San Francisco.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 111 reviews
August 13, 2017
Simply brilliant. 14 different illustrators answered the old riddle "Why did the chicken cross the road?" in 14 different ways. There's so much you could do with this in the classroom.
November 13, 2007
Get ready for lots of laughs when you read Why Did The Chicken Cross The Road? Believe me, you are in for a real treat because fourteen of the most funniest and talented artists fabricated their own illustrations about the age-old chicken crossing the road joke. There aren’t many words in the book, however the pictures leave much to the imagination. Several selections are sweet and whimsical like Vladimir Radunsky’s and Jerry Pinkey’s. Others have sly twists on the joke's words like Mo Willems’ and Marla Frazee’s. More contemplative, evocative selections are contributed by Mary Grandpre and Chris Raschka. This book is lots of fun and demonstrates the impressive artistic range and talent featured in today’s picture books.
October 9, 2007
This is a big year for poultry. The first of two avian stories had me laughing out loud. Agee gives a bevy of highly talented children’s illustrators free plume to answer the age-old question- “Why did the chicken cross the road?” They all succeed with multi-layered humor that will appeal to both adults and kids. This book also offers an excellent chance to get to know some of the best authors/illustrators in contemporary children’s literature.
May 22, 2008
This is a great picture book! Each page has a different picture book illustrator answering the main question. Classic!
February 21, 2013
Use for engaging boys and girls that like joke books. Can use for writing genre study. Great pictures. Encourages deep and unique thinking.
March 18, 2015
Pretty interesting. I couldn't quite believe I was spending all this time reading bout CHICKENS!! But I kept reading.
September 19, 2017
“Why did the Chicken Cross the Road,” is picturebook that includes a number of authors/illustrators, which includes Marla Frazee, Mo Willems, Judy Schachner, Tedd Arnold, David Shannon, Jon Agee, Vladimir Radunsky, Jerry Pinkney, Chris Sheban, Harry Bliss, Mary Grandpre, Lunn Munsinger, David Catrow, and Chris Raschka. There is no real plot. The “story” is a comical look at the age-old joke: Why did the chicken cross the road? This book is interesting, in that, it includes various authors a chance to tell their own version of this joke from their perspective. Since taking a class in children’s literature, and spending my Saturday afternoons in children’s section of the public library just waiting for someone to ask me, “Ah, sir, where is your child?”, I have begun to recognize many of the authors. This book had a great number of award winning authors/illustrators. Even if I didn’t see the author’s name, I could guess the author from the artwork. In that aspect, it reads like an art book of children’s literature. It is a depiction of the joke from different perspectives. The audience seems to be varied because the jokes are understandable on all ages. On the last opening of picturebook are minor explanations for each of the author’s take on the joke. In various text types, with the explanations, each author’s works are listed. This is helpful in finding new authors. It is a really fun book that can be read/enjoyed by any audience.
June 17, 2021
In truth I only knew one of the writer/illustrators before coming into this book--Mo Williems, author of the Pigeon books and Knuffle Bunny (as well as others). I love the Pigeon books and have read them all (I even have a Pigeon plushie). I enjoyed this book even though I'm way above the target age (4-8); the different 'answers' to the question are certainly inventive and hilarious.
Some are certainly better then others, but all 14 two-page spreads offer a creative answer to one of the oldest jokes around. At the end there is a spread with short blurbs from each author offering a quick joke illustrating who they are effectively plus beneath each is a short list of their books.
A nice quick rid that a young child will enjoy and even their parents or older siblings. Who knows it might even spark their imagination to come up with an even crazier reason.
Some are certainly better then others, but all 14 two-page spreads offer a creative answer to one of the oldest jokes around. At the end there is a spread with short blurbs from each author offering a quick joke illustrating who they are effectively plus beneath each is a short list of their books.
A nice quick rid that a young child will enjoy and even their parents or older siblings. Who knows it might even spark their imagination to come up with an even crazier reason.
March 8, 2019
If your kids understand the Chicken/Road joke well enough to understand one-panel variations on that theme, they might appreciate this, which is a compilation of famous writers' and illustrators' takes on the joke. But that means that there's no linear narration, the jokes are often more for adults than kids, and some of the pictures are either scary or too weird for kid appreciation.
This book is a good idea doesn't quite make it across the road.
This book is a good idea doesn't quite make it across the road.
February 28, 2024
Agee Assignment #11
Jon Agee and a number of other authors gt together to give different responses to the age old question Why did the Chicken Cross the road? - Pretty lame really, some kids may enjoy.
I would have rather read a book about the origins of the joke and how it came about and then look at variations etc, that would be interesting and still could be humorous.
Anyway an average and somewhat disappointing book.
Jon Agee and a number of other authors gt together to give different responses to the age old question Why did the Chicken Cross the road? - Pretty lame really, some kids may enjoy.
I would have rather read a book about the origins of the joke and how it came about and then look at variations etc, that would be interesting and still could be humorous.
Anyway an average and somewhat disappointing book.
August 4, 2021
I loved this! It's like an anthology but for different illustrators in a short, concise, funny picture book. A smattering of favorite childrens' book illustrator each contribute a page spread that answers the question "Why did the chicken cross the road?" It's like watching all your favorite friends from different parts of your life all hanging out together.
June 11, 2018
I love how they used so many famous illustrators and had each page show a different answer for why the chicken crossed the road. Mo Willems, David Shannon, and the creator of Fly guy were all included.
June 21, 2018
Fun! Useless as a read-aloud (many pages are wordless), but SO worth the time to read alone or with a bonus reader or two. The answers to this question are brilliantly and uniquely answered by some of the best illustrators on the planet. Highly recommended.
August 11, 2018
well, duh. (lol) she was de-ranged (rotfl)... must ask the mutated zombie chickens from mars...
the collection of authors didn't foul this up... it could be used as a great teaching tool to explain perspective and imagination. LOVED IT.
the collection of authors didn't foul this up... it could be used as a great teaching tool to explain perspective and imagination. LOVED IT.
May 8, 2019
From the gloriously beautiful (Jerry Pinkney) to the hilarious (Mo Willems) to the nostalgic (Vladimir Rodunsky) to the whimsical (David Shannon) to the stunningly artistic (Mary Grandpre) and everything in between, fourteen artists answer the oldest question in comedy in their own, unique ways.
May 13, 2020
Why did the chicken cross the road? 14 hilariously egg-cellent artists answer this age-old question. Wonderful. Each artist's take on this old riddle is unique and creative. Their individual personalities shine. What a joy!
December 15, 2020
This book was Awesome. A bunch of great children’s authors were given the same question: Why did the chicken cross the road” and then asked to visually give us their answer. My favorite is of course David Catrow, but Mo Willems comes in a close second.
#Wintergames #teamreadnosereindeer +16
#Wintergames #teamreadnosereindeer +16
July 18, 2017
14 children book illustrators answer this question. It's fun!
March 22, 2018
super fun book. not many words but the art is great. every picture is a different art style. it makes the book unique.
June 21, 2018
More for the connaisseurs than for the kids, but I liked it.
August 6, 2018
I really enjoyed seeing all of the different chickens created by these well known illustrators!
September 4, 2018
I really enjoyed the variety celebrating these illustrators :)
September 7, 2019
It would be fun to have students guess who the illustrator of each spread is before revealing the answer.
October 30, 2019
Good collection of chicken inclusive illustrations; otherwise, not so hot.
January 31, 2021
We loved this picture book. It is inventive, unique, thoughtful, and funny.
February 9, 2021
Humorous takes on answering this long time question. Each illustrator shares a page spread that offers their explanation. Be sure to read the caption explanations at the end of the book.
March 18, 2021
I really enjoyed this graphic book!
March 19, 2021
I like that all these illustrators came together to answer the age-old question "why did the chicken cross the road?".
September 13, 2021
Marvelous deputations to answer this question, designed by 14 different artists. Super clever.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 111 reviews