Reviews for Chickens to the Rescue!

Chickens To The Rescue Hits Off Off Broadway!  HERE!

Starred Review in School Library Journal

*HIMMELMAN, John. Chickens to the Rescue. illus. by author. unpaged. CIP. Holt. Oct. 2006. RTE $16.95. ISBN 0-8050-7951-3. LC 2005020044.

PreS-Gr 2-At the Greenstalk Farm, it's no problem if the sheep get lost, the farmer drops his watch down the well, the dog eats young Jeffrey's book report, the cow gets stuck in a tree, the duck steals the truck, or Mrs. Greenstalk is too tired to cook. It's "Chickens to the rescue!" Unless it's Sunday when they get some hard-earned rest and the pigs step in to help out. This rollicking story, made up of simple statements in a specific pattern, follows the fowls' heroics Monday through Sunday. The simplicity of the text allows the sheer brilliance of the colored-pencil and watercolor illustrations to shine through. The details in each rescue scene will have everyone laughing and noting the expressions of the animals, their crazy but appropriate outfits, and their amazing abilities. Pair this hilarious story with Doreen Cronin's Click, Clack, Moo (S & S, 2000) and David Shannon's Duck on a Bike (Scholastic, 2002) for a lively storytime about extraordinary farm animals.-Catherine Callegari, Gay-Kimball Library, Troy, NH

Kirkus Reviews

With hilarious, Keystone Kops-style urgency, chickens scurry, flop, leap, flap, peck and stumble to the rescue when Farmer Greenstalk drops his watch down the well, when Mrs. Greenstalk collapses in exhaustion into an easy chair just before dinnertime, when Ernie the duck tries to drive off in the pickup and more. Repeating the chorus of "CHICKENS TO THE RESCUE!" above spacious, full-spread rural scenes, Himmelman decks the frantic flock out in swimwear, chef's hats and other garb appropriate to each mishap, and leaves the beneficiaries of each foray appreciative-or at least bemused. After a week, though, enough is enough, so when daughter Emily Greenstalk semi-deliberately knocks her breakfast onto the floor, the chickens stay nestled out in the hen house-passing the torch to another set of quick-off-the-mark livestock. Further proof, as if it were needed, that chickens are funny. (Picture book. 5-7)

Pittsburg Tribune-Review

On Monday, Farmer Greenstalk dropped his watch down the well. A total loss? No way, we learn in this perfectly nutty concoction, with a four-word rallying cry that appears at the solution to every barnyard crisis: "Chickens to the rescue." There may be a paucity of text here, but John Himmelman's illustrations speak volumes, and do so quite hilariously.

So the sheep are lost? And the duck drove off with the farmer's truck? And Milky the cow is stuck in a tree? You've got it, chickens to the rescue -- except on Sunday, when they get some needed sleep.

This is one of those instances where seeing really is believing.

Nicholas A. Basbanes

Fuse #8 Productions

Go to this NYC Librarian's Blog for this fun review - click