Gr 2-4
Wonderfully creative handmade characters and sets are the highlight of this over-the-top chicken tale about a beauty shop, a vain Tom turkey, and Thanksgiving Day dinner. One day, a self-important turkey enters The Chic Hen and announces that he's been invited to a special dinner. When Beauty, the owner of the shop, discovers that he is not invited for dinner but as dinner, she and the other hens strategize to save the frantic fowl. Their best and final plan, to put him in a dress and save him from the oven, works well. Every word that begins with the letters "ex" (and there are many of them) are re-spelled to fit the theme: "eggsercise," "eggsploring," "eggstensive," etc. The book is filled with puns that will be understood by older children and adults. In one instance, a beauty shop customer is reading Miss Coop Living magazine and the two feature articles are "Feathering Your First Nest" and "Living on the Other Side of the Road." The illustrations are well worth poring over. The author made chicken mannequins with polymer eyes, beaks, and shoes, as well as wool wings and yarn feathers. Her husband designed the sets, built them, and photographed the images, adjusting their size. A humorous story about dressing a turkey, but not in the usual manner.
—Maryann H. OwenCopyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
We all know what we look forward to in the latter part of November - Thanksgiving Day and juicy, succulent roast turkey. But, as that time approaches, how does a turkey feel? The writing/illustrating team of Jane and Herm Auch tell just how it is in their uproarious tale of Lance, a conceited turkey whose beak is out of joint because he's the only one invited to a feast. Why, he's so stuck up that he doesn't know that the feast is him. Fortunately, he finds a friend in Beauty, who owns a beauty shop, The Chic Hen. It's here that all the chickens come to be spruced up and, of course, to gossip. When Lance arrives all of them think he's the saddest looking hen they've ever seen. When Beauty discovers he is really a turkey, she begins to wonder just what kind of a feast he's been invited to attend. She flies to the farmhouse to do a little investigating, and her heart stops when she peeks in a pantry window and sees a cookbook open to 'Roast Turkey with Chestnut Stuffing.' The plan Beauty and the other hens devise to save Lance is hilarious, and illustrations are laugh-out-loud funny. Beauty and the Beaks will bring smiles to grown-ups and laughter to youngsters. Enjoy! - Gail Cooke
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Overview