March 19 – Poultry Day

Happy Poultry Day!

Poultry… it’s not just for dinner!

Poultry make memorable characters in children’s literature.  Look at The Little Red Hen, Make Way for Ducklings, The Goose That Laid the Golden Egg and Turkey Trouble just to name a few.  

Today, I want to share an old favorite The Wolf’s Chicken Stew written and illustrated by Keiko Kasza.  As you can see from the cover, Mr. Wolf has plans for dinner!  But before he eats her, he wants to fatten her up a bit.  So he prepares a hundred scrumptious pancakes and leaves them at her doorstep.  The next day he prepares a hundred scrumptious doughnuts.  And on the third day, he prepares a scrumptious cake weighing a hundred pounds.  When he finally decides that she must be fat enough to eat, he peeks into her house through the keyhole and is surprised to find not only the chicken, but one hundred baby chicks who crawl all over him, calling him Uncle Wolf and giving him one hundred kisses!  Mr. Wolf didn’t get chicken stew for dinner, but he did go home to make the ‘little critters’ a hundred scrumptious cookies!

The Wolf’s Chicken Stew was published in 1987 and won both the Kentucky Bluegrass Award and was named an ALA Notable Children’s Book that year.  And it’s definitely a winner today!   So before you run out to prepare your poultry dinner… grab a great poultry picture book and and maybe a nice vegetable soup for dinner!