Review of the Day: The Chicken Thief by Beatrice Rodriguez

What’s up with the Europeans out there?  Are they better than the Yanks at wordless picture books? Or are they just less afraid to publish them? Remember that when someone like David Wiesner publishes a wordless picture book, like Flotsam, he gets showered in big shiny gold medals. Generally speaking, however, wordless picture books aren’t as common as all that in the American marketplace. Plus, to make a book without words and only pictures requires a deep and abiding knowledge of visual storytelling. And since America is still slow to grasp the implications behind graphic novels and panel-related story fare, the Europeans plunge onward, producing books like Beatrice Rodriguez’s charming and very French The Chicken Thief. An epic cross-country chase, this book reads like The Bremen Town Musicians meets The Fugitive.

On a beautiful day a rabbit, fox, rooster, hens, and chicks all wake up to start the day. Unbeknownst to them, a hungry fox is lying in wait. Then, when no one expects it, he grabs the white chicken in his paws and the race is on. Rooster, bear, and rabbit pursue the two through woods, over mountains, and across a wide sea. When at last the three confront the fox in its own home, the hen rushes to his defense and explains that the two have fallen in love. Everyone settles down for a nice bit of soup and the next day the three set off, waving goodbye to the fox and his new fowl love.

The pictures themselves appear to be pen-and-ink colored in with watercolors. And there’s always a tiny detail to spot on every two-page spread. Did you notice the arrows showing the path the fox and chicken took to get out of the mountain? Or the badminton racquets and shuttlecock sitting on the fox’s hearth at the end of the tale? Did you spot the very French café chairs the rabbit and bear sit in while having their incredibly French breakfast at the story’s start? Or what about the dejected rooster at the end, utterly crushed by the fact that the chicken prefers the fox’s charms to his own (I don’t know what he’s complaining about since he CLEARLY has two hens waiting for him at home anyway). You could spend hours finding every last little detail in this book, and there would still be more to find.

Moreover, a wonderful job is done in breaking up the images so that they don’t all blend together. In the first two page spreads the picture on the left-hand side of the page is surrounded in a white border. On the right-hand page, the image bleeds all the way out to the edges. Rodriguez isn’t afraid to play with borders and panels. One suspects that she has done more than her fair share of comics in the past.

Once in a while a parent or teacher will ask for a list of recommended wordless books. Sometimes these are useful for kids who want to read books but haven’t learned how to read yet. Other times they’re good for kids who are new to the country and want to read something, but haven’t grasped the English language quite yet. And then there are other times when you just want to teach a kid what it’s like to tell a story in pictures rather than words. From here on in I will be recommending The Chicken Thief to those already existing fans of Regis Faller’s The Adventures of Polo or The Boy The Bear The Baron The Bard by Gregory Rogers. Fun with a twist ending, this is one of the lovelier picture book offerings of the year.

On shelves May 1st.

Source: Hardcover copy sent from the publisher for review.