Proud Rooster and Little Hen by Carl Sommer Illustrated by Greg Budwine

3 stars

from googlebooks

Eek! I can't believe I forgot to post yesterday. This whole keeping up with everything is really getting to me. I guess I need to work on my posts more in advance then the day of, as the day just slips away from me.

It has also been hard to figure out which children's book to choose as 1) we are reading a lot and it is hard to narrow it down and 2) a lot of the books the kids are choosing are the learn-to-read one's which I can't stand. Now when we go to the library I let them choose one of those kind but their other book has to be a picture book. So help me, if I am going to read to them it will be a story worth reading, not some crazy swiss cheese type plot book. (Swiss cheese referring to the holes, like holes in the plot, not cheesy plotlines.) Do you put limits on what your kids get from the library? Do you try to steer their choices, while letting them still choose or do you give them complete freedom?

Synopsis

Proud Rooster thinks that he knows better than anybody else. He does not listen to warnings and that sometimes gets him in trouble. His father tells Proud Rooster if he doesn't change soon he may learn his lesson when it is too little to late. Read and watch to see if Proud Rooster changes in time or not.

My Thoughts

Books with a moral are not a bad thing. It can be helpful when children see characters in books behaving inappropriately and they can identify that. It is easier for them to see what someone else is doing wrong and then internalize it than seeing what they are doing wrong. But good grief. Can we teach kids a moral with out it seeming like, listen or you die!

Proud Rooster doesn't listen. He doesn't listen to his friends when they tell him not to climb as high on the tree. What happens, the branch snaps and he falls to the ground breaking his arms and legs and he is unconscious. Does he learn his lesson then? Nope! After months of being in casts Proud Rooster can finally go out to play and what happens. He nearly dies because he goes on ice and falls through. He seems to finally learn his lesson after that catastrophe. But seriously. You would have thought that after breaking all his limbs and probably having a severe concussion Little Rooster might have been a bit more cautious about the whole ice thing. Like, really the day his casts come off that's when he goes on the ice? I'm all for teaching kids the dangers gravity can pose and learning ice safety, but really?

It just seems a bit to in your face to be too much of an enjoyable story. When my husband was reading this to the girls he was laughing with shock at the storyline. And the illustrations were pretty crazy too. When Proud Rooster is unconscious there are x's over his eyes. Very stark.

So, this book is great if you want some pipsqueak to learn a lesson in a pretty upfront type of way. If you are looking for a nice story to cuddle up with you kids and possibly learn a nice message, I don't think this is the book for you. It doesn't really make a great cuddle book.