Little Chicken in a Hurry
Author: 
Zakir Hussain
Illustrator: 
Pooja Pottenkulam
age group: 
5+ yrs
Number of pages: 
16
Publisher: 
Young Zubaan
Themes:
value education folktales chickens
Genre:
picture book, fiction
 

Choozu Mian was the last chick to be born and the best looking of Mama Hen's brood. Everyone praises his looks and so our little Choozu Mian decides that he was too good for the basket and trots off for the King's palace.

On the way, he is asked for help by, Fire, Water and Wind, as they had woken up late and were lagging behind in their chores. But Choozu Mian disregards them all. He reaches the King's Palace and finds himself in a soup (well, almost) as the Royal Cook wants to serve him up for dinner.

Fire, Water and Wind come to his rescue in spite of his having ignored their pleas for help. A remorseful Choozu decides to make amends by crowing loudly at the crack of dawn in order to wake them up every morning, "Cock-a-doodle-do!"

A delightful tale that tells us when and why the cock first started to crow and, at the same time teaches the value of forgiveness, repentance and making amends - all in this simple story.

The strong lines of the illustrations with minimal fuss are effective. I

Reviewed by Shamim Padamsee