Published: 2010 (Paperback Reissue: 2016)
Author / Illustrator: David Ezra Stein
Genre: Children’s Metafiction / Humorous Picture Book
Audience: Pre-K–Grade 1
Number of Stars: ★★★★★ (5/5)
Goodreads Link: Interrupting Chicken
Themes: Classroom Management, Active Listening, Bedtime Rituals, Classic Fairy Tales, Impulse Control.
Review by: Megan Powell
Publisher’s Summary
Awarded a 2011 Caldecott Honor! A favorite joke inspires this charming tale, in which a little chicken’s habit of interrupting bedtime stories is gleefully turned on its head.
It’s time for the little red chicken’s bedtime story—and a reminder from Papa to try not to interrupt. But the chicken can’t help herself! Whether the tale is “Hansel and Gretel” or “Little Red Riding Hood” or even “Chicken Little,” she jumps into the story to save its hapless characters from doing some dangerous or silly thing. Now it’s the little red chicken’s turn to tell a story, but will her yawning papa make it to the end without his own kind of interrupting? Energetically illustrated with glowing colors—and offering humorous story-within-a-story views—this all-too-familiar tale is sure to amuse (and hold the attention of) spirited little chicks.
Review
This book centers around a little red chicken who simply cannot resist the urge to constantly interrupt. He interrupts every single chance that he gets! I was fortunate enough to read this book with a Kindergarten class, and I closely observed how the classroom teacher read the book aloud to beautifully exaggerate the little chicken’s frantic, well-meaning interruptions.
Between educational “BookTok” trends and real-life teachers that I have personally observed in kindergarten spaces, educators love to use the visual of this specific chicken to gently remind their young students not to be an “interrupting chicken” themselves. Because of this, I highly recommend this book to any Pre-K, Kindergarten, or 1st-grade teacher. Simply printing out a colorful picture of the main character, laminating it, and sticking it onto a simple wooden popsicle stick makes a perfect, low-cost behavioral tool. It is incredibly easy for teachers to store on a whiteboard ledge or slip directly into their pockets while teaching on the carpet. I absolutely love this classroom hack, and I have seen it help improve early childhood classroom management firsthand.
🎒 Classroom & Curricular Connections
- Classroom Management (The “Popsicle Stick” Listening Strategy):
- Activity Idea: Introduce the popsicle-stick little red chicken during the first week of school alongside this read-aloud. Practice an interactive game where if the teacher holds up the chicken wand, the entire class must quickly “catch their bubble” and practice patient, respectful listening. It turns an intrusive habit into an entertaining, shared behavioral visual cue.
- English Language Arts & Metafiction (Deconstructing Fairy Tales):
- Activity Idea: “Jumping Into the Story.” The little red chicken fractures classic fairy tales like Little Red Riding Hood and Hansel and Gretel by rewriting their endings to save the characters from danger. Have students pick a well-known classroom fairy tale and draw a picture or dictate a sentence showing how they would physically jump into the pages to save the main character.
- Speaking, Listening & Drama (Vocal Inflections and Punctuation):
- Activity Idea: “The Interrupting Choir.” Model reading standard prose compared to the bold, panicked font of the little chicken’s interruptions (“DON’T GO IN THERE!”). Have students practice shouting out the chicken’s lines with dramatic, anxious expression when prompted, teaching them how font size and punctuation act as musical notes for a reader’s voice.
