Richard Waring

In this simple picture book, the author introduces a short story a cute hen who “ate and ate, and grew and grew, and the more she ate, the more she grew.” The second cunning character in the story is the fox who was day after day sits on a hill above the hen house assuming that the longer he waits to devour the hen, the bigger prey he will have “if I wait just one more day, the hen will be ever bigger.” The author uses limited vocabulary with large type size, “he waited and waited, and waited, then the hen grew bigger and bigger.” The story illustrated by Church who accentuates the gradual enlargement of the hen and the hungry fox who waited until he became very emaciated. The author purposefully and suddenly builds suspense with just one sentence and sudden cut to the pictures to enthuse young reader to the surprising end when the sly predator became prey, “The hen bent down and gobbled him all up.” This book with its simple words and copious repetition can be the perfect choice for children who began to read by themselves.… (meer)