Rebecca Emberley and Ed Emberley
Author/Illustrator team

Big Words:

brightest
excitable
prone
foolishness
pastime
senseless
gracious
noggin
scrambled
witless
huffed
momentarily
croaked
anxious
rumbled
puffed
rasped
honestly
bother

I remember Ed Emberley drawing books from my childhood. I loved to copy his simple steps to create recognizable animals, faces and objects. So I was thrilled to find a storybook written and illustrated by by Emberley and his daughter.

My friend, Stacy, a thoughtful and purposeful preschool teacher, recommended this book for the great vocabulary. The list of birds joining Chicken Little’s flock as he runs to escape the falling sky is a beautiful example of divergent naming, and Emberley demonstrates synonyms for ‘said’ useful in modeling variety in writing. The art is worth studying and imitating, too. Graphic images and simple shapes convey meaning and emotion without intimidating detail. Young artists will be inspired.

Best of all, Chicken Little is fun to read! This is a quick read with repetitive text and opportunity for read-alouders to use goofy voices as each bird talks to the next. Tongue-in-cheek asides and a surprise ending add extra layers of fun for adults.

Find Chicken Little and read it today!