Gimme Cracked Corn & I Will Share

O'Malley, Kevin. Gimme Cracked Corn & I will Share. Walker & Company. 2007. A delightful series of jokes are weaved into a story about a chicken that searches for his idea of treasure, some "cracked corn". An illustration shows a chicken with its eyes closed and a word bubble with a picture of a corn cob and the word, "YUM"; in the next picture, the chicken stands with a very stern look and tells his friend George about the barn" where the treasure is supposed to be hidden. George replies, "You must be yolking". Chicken and George come to a road, "How did the chickens cross the road? You ask. They crossed at the light." The accompanying illustration shows both chickens waiting patiently at the stop light - the lit up sign says, "Don't Walk". Chicken and George hide in "a scary forest" and when a hawk attacks them, George says, "What do you call a chicken that can swim?" Chicken responds with, "I have no idea" so George yells, "DUCK!" The two chickens whose features and movements are remarkably expressive stand out boldly from their more muted backgrounds. Photoshop is used to fill in colors inside energetic black ink outlines. Children in kindergarten and up will enjoy getting the jokes, and if they miss some of the clever wordplay, will appreciate that upon repeated readings. The eye-catching book cover shows a chicken doing the can-can with some ears of corn. Wonderful!

We purchased this book as a birthday gift for a friend that has quite the flock of chickens in her backyard. She read it out loud & we laughed til tears ran down our faces. Not only did we love the puns & the very silly story (chickens after all tend to be a bit silly), the illustrations are spectacular. Chicken, the determined Aracana, and his sidekick, the ever dramatic George, are beautifully rendered. And then there's the giant pink pig! If you would enjoy a funny book of non-fiction chicken adventures check out - Travels with My Chicken: A Man and His Companion Take to the Road

I hear the review on NPR and bought 5 copies for kids niece, nephew and collegue's daughter....it is a HIT, even if a bit corn-ey. Only trouble is wee-people running around with bad puns intended.

Learning is great but lets not forget to allow the children to have fun! That's what being a kid is all about. Usually when adults read they read novels or non-fiction that interests them, for entertainment. Lets let the children have their fun too. This is a fun book. It wasn't my favorit by any means but it was fun. My children also didn't seem to get all the humor. I also recommend books by Beau Beaudoin who has become my children's favorit picture book author and illustrator. The Url King and Boetry

This book is FULL of figurative language of all kinds! Extrememy useful as a language curriculum connection! The Kindergarteners enjoyed it (even though they didn't "get" all the puns) as much as the Seniors!