Blue Chicken

Author & Illustrator:   Deborah Freedman
Publisher:  Viking
Publication Year:  2011
Location: Knox County Public Library- Powell

Awards:   featured on "Calling Caldecott" blog; Kirkus, Booklist, & School Library Journal starred reviews, Kirkus Best Book

Summary:  On the front endpaper, its a grey rainy day in a framed picture of a barn (Is it a window or a frame?) The narrator is an unseen artist who is almost finished with her painting- everything except the barn. But, one of the chicken leaves the painting and heads for the pot of blue ink. It spills and blue ink goes everywhere! It floods and colors everything blue! The (now blue) animals are mad, and the chicken heads for the water cup to try and "undo the blue." She washes it off and everything is back to the same, except the sky which stays blue. At the end, the artist is seen outside the window painting her real barn white. The hilarious final endpaper shows a fire-engine red barn and animals.

Classroom Ideas: Great vocabulary here (peevish, sincerely). An art teacher could use this to talk about ink and watercolors. The plot would be easy to map out, and Blue Chicken's problem solving could be discussed as well.