Count Your Chickens

by Jo Ellen Bogart, Lori Joy Smith

For fans of Richard Scarry, a cute-as-a-button picture book featuring dozens of chickens as they set out for the county fair!

Chickens, chickens everywhere -- going to the county fair! Follow a family of chickens as they prepare for their big outing. You'll see chickens wondering what to wear, baking pies, painting their toes and knitting socks. A stroll through town reveals that everyone else is excited for the festivities too. There are so many sights to see! Over there we see racers sprinting to the finish line. Over here, farmers showing off their best crops. Clowns, entertainers and musicians take the stage. And don't forget the rides: the Ferris wheel, super slide and merry-go-round. Grab some cotton candy and popcorn, because this very silly book will entertain and challenge young readers with searching and counting elements.

Genres: Picture Books, Animals, Childrens, Storytime, Counting, Fiction, Birds

32 pages, Hardcover

Published February 7, 2017

About the author

Jo Ellen Bogart has written 20 books for young readers, including The White Cat and the Monk, which was named a Best Poetry Book by the National Council of teachers of English. Her bestselling books include Jeremiah Learns to Read, Daniel's Dog, and Gifts. Jo Ellen has won the Ruth Schwartz Award and has been shortlisted for the Mr. Christie's Book Award.

Reviews

[HorrorBabe911 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read it to my little nephew. So adorable, the illustrations were stunning and colorful. A great read for the young ones.

[Tara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this ARC from Netgalley for an honest review.
I love this book about chickens everywhere. The illustrations are fun and the rhyming makes you want to keep turning the pages. This would be a great book for read-aloud.

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bright and colorful illustrations, and rhymed text. Every page is full of details AND chickens you can count. The story is set in a county fair, where nothing is missing: cotton candy, sack races, Ferry wheels, balloons, clowns, music, slides, even a Grasshopper Tart Contest! This book is a catcher!

I received this copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a cute book. I will grant it that. And yeah, and book with chickens, count me in, since I have, what am I up to now, 32 of them in my backyard flock, so yeah, I kind of like chickens I guess.

And I kind of like this book. Kind of. It is full of bright pictures, and lots of anthropomorphic chickens, going to a faire, having fun, and then going home.

But, see, the thing that would have earned it more stars would be to actually use the chickens to make the story more. Chickens should not be something you can swap out with anthropomorphic mice, or cats, or dogs, or anything else that a picture book would be about. I felt as though they were missing out on something by making them just like little people doing all these things, cute as it was.

And this isn't saying that the book is bad. It does what it says on the tin, and it is a bit like Richard Scarey, and his little mice, and pigs and cats, and dogs. There was a child at the library who would keep checking out the same Richard Scarey book, he loved it so much.

So, perhaps I am a cynic old lady, and don't appreciate what kids would love. But, I have read very cleaver books that took on aspects of the what a chicken is like to tell the story, and that made it all the better.

So, probably kids will love it, for its bright pictures, and cute drawings.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

[Marlee · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an adorable book! So cute and so fun. My 9 year old loved this, especially he part at the end that was like a look and find.

[Edward Sullivan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining, Richard Scarry-like illustrations and simple rhyming text.

[Carla · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love books by Jo Ellen Bogart, and this one is no exception. It is not the typical book by her, but more in the line of a Richard Scary book. Each page of this book is covered with activity. Chickens are depicted in all sorts of settings, doing various activities. The story is told in rhyme with questions that will start a discussion with the reader and listeners. I love the section at the back of the book where each pages asks how many .... where children can go back and count chickens doing different things. My grandson loved this book. He kept asking questions and finding more things. This is a book that can be read over and over with something different attracting attention each time. A great book for public, classroom, school and family libraries. The publisher generously provided me with a copy of this book via Netgalley.

[ʕᵔᴥᵔʔ · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this to my two children and judging by their faces, they enjoyed hearing it. I loved everything in this book. The pictures were bright and colorful, the chickens were cute, and the story rhymed. Made it super fun to read. I would easily spend money for this book if I hadn't gotten it for free through Netgalley.

[Mama Bibliosoph · Rating 3 out of 5]

We were lucky enough to be able to take our boys to Disneyland a few months ago, and ever since then, Harry has been really into amusement parks as a subject. I picked up Count the Chickens because I wondered if a county fair subject would appeal to him, and he liked it a lot.

The title is a little misleading because while you can certainly use this book for counting, the book isn't actually structured in a way that is predictive. That is, there isn't a page with two of everything and three of everything, and so forth. Instead, the bouncy rhyming text names different kinds of chickens (Chicken grannies knitting socks. Chicken chicks with chicken pox.), and it's up to the reader to find the two grannies and three sick chicks, for instance, and count them.

The problem is that the illustrations are really detailed and there are a lot of chickens. My son Harry was super-interested in doing this, and really worked hard to find all the chickens on each page, but it was a lot of work, and I could see him fatiguing on it towards the end of the book. It was far too busy for my son Luke to focus on. I wouldn't recommend this as a read-aloud book for a group of children who are typically developing either--it's too detailed to use in anything other than a 1:1 setting.

What I like best about this book is that it shows a fair ground really well, so I think it would be a good book to show a child before going to a theme park or amusement park as a sort of low-key social story about what to expect. I also like that there are so many kinds of anthropomorphized chicken characters. This book works well for expanding vocabulary around community helpers, professions, and other categories of people. In fact, in subsequent readings with Harry, I dropped all pretense of counting, and just had him find the chicken magicians, the doctors, and punks, etcetera. He loved it.

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I review books for children from the perspective of a parent of kids with autism. The review above is part of a longer two-part blog post about the best 2017 releases: http://www.lineupthebooks.com/2017-ch...

[Robyn Crisostomo · Rating 3 out of 5]

The chickens in the story are extremely cute as they prepare for what they are about to do throughout the story. The issue, for me, is that the chickens do not have a cohesive story. They just say that they are going to the fair and speaking of the different chickens seen throughout the fair. The story is just saying that there are different chickens enjoying different aspects of the fair, but not of the other chickens interact with one another. It is just a bunch of chickens doing different things in one location.

The pictures of the chickens are simply drawn and no harsh lines. There is a lot of green throughout the book indicating many of the characters are outside. The art is simple and so is the storyline. There's no real goal, throughout the story but the drawings are cute to look at and theres even activities at the back of the book.

[Rose Rosetree · Rating 5 out of 5]

This picture presents a very busy introduction to life. It's toddler perfect.

I can see why this book was praised (by the Goodreads blurber) as being akin to the Richard Scarry's body of work, but to me this book doesn't come close. To me, the critters pictured here are more decorative than soulful.

Nonetheless, it's funny and antic... much like toddlers themselves. You can get the flavor from this quote:

Chickens on the Ferris wheel
shriek with laughter, scream and squeal.
Chicken sister cannot speak --
cotton candy in her beak!

Have fun with this book, Goodreaders. It's FIVE STAR worthy.

[Victoria Peipert · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun and light enjoyable read that is perfect for bedtime stories or a read aloud. The color palette is so fun and fresh and the illustration style is also a unique look. The rhyming scheme and some of the lines are even fun for adults to read along with for their children.

The thing I like most is the authors attention to detail. There are a lot of details in the illustrations and I think that makes this a fun book for kids to revisit even as they get older and their visual comprehension get stronger.

[Marina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love chickens and I love picture books that rhyme so it goes that I should adore this book. However, the title is COUNT Your Chickens. I wanted that to be part of the story. All it is is a page at the end for you to go back and count how many chickens are doing a specific task on each page. Not very interactive as you're reading the story. I'd have the list available to go through AS I'm reading the book.

[Phyllis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cute chicken illustrations but rhyme scheme doesn't really work so well. First page makes it seem like it will be a counting book ("--count some chickens! Start with one") and the next page talks about picky chickens choosing the best--a confusing segway into the remainder of the story. From page one, you think this will be a counting book but that theme doesn't resurface until the end when the book tells you to go back and count. Kids may find that fun, though.

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rhyming text details the actions of chickens having fun. Not as much of a counting book as a seek and find book with an added counting element.

Pencil illustrations were colored digitally and really give readers a lot to look at on each spread. I like the added counting challenges that follow text and the fact that the answer key is included. PreK-2.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a board book, but probably intended for more of a preschool crowd. M enjoys the chickens, and there is a lot to look at on each page. The rhymes were good, although for M we mostly talk about what the different chickens might be doing. Also, for what it's worth, there isn't actually any counting involved in the text of this book.

[Mrs Heet -Librarian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought the illustrations were mostly cute and the rhyming worked, but I had expectations of it being an actual counting book. There were questions in the back for you to use on each page to count various types of chickens. I also thought some of the references to the chickens were things that a child reading this just wouldn't get.

[Cheryl]

I am so not the target audience. I read the words, but I did not squint at the detailed, whimsical pictures to try to actually count the chickens on each spread. I'm glad that there's an answer key in the back. For me, I'm glad it counts for a "county fair" challenge.

[Janet · Rating 1 out of 5]

I just finished reading a picture book by Jo Ellen Bogart and really liked it, Little Blue House By the Sea. The only aspect of this title I liked was that it was about going to a fair. No to the illustrations and no to the chickens being the characters. No, just no to this title.

[Paige M · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not truly suitable for storytime, but good for a one-on-one read with children practicing counting. Silly, bright.

[Evan Childress · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too small for storytime.

[Kari · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the artwork and the rhyming. My daughter really liked counting all the chickens.

[Brianna Osborne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed it, but too long.

[Donna Mork · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute interactive book. Chickens go to a fair, all done in rhyme. You have to find the chickens listed in the rhyme. In the back there are instructions and answers to help you learn to count.

[Cara Mae · Rating 5 out of 5]

Moody chickens sing the blues. ;)

[M · Rating 5 out of 5]

There's a cute little "counting quiz" at the end of the book. You flip back through the pages to count specific chickens.

[Erendira · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great read of alliteration and rhyme. Sweet sounds that made a whole lot of sense with humor and wit. Delightfully lovely.

[The Book Box]

Mama read this to my class in library. The week before, a sub read it to the kindergartners. Mama and I had read it before, too, but apparently forgot to catalog it.

[Lucca · Rating 5 out of 5]

We loved this book! I loved the math aspect and the search and find.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the cute illustrations. It is definitely intended for a young audience...toddler to preschool. If you have a beginner counter, this would be a fun way to practice.