<blockquote>Always chicken feed! Day after day--year after year--I'm sick of it! squawked Big Brown Rooster. </blockquote> In this deliciously imaginative book by sisters Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummel, a hungry and fed-up rooster suddenly recalls his famous Great-Granny, a fabulous chef who penned a book of recipes for future generations. He hunts down her cookbook--<I>The ...
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<blockquote>Always chicken feed! Day after day--year after year--I'm sick of it! squawked Big Brown Rooster. </blockquote> In this deliciously imaginative book by sisters Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummel, a hungry and fed-up rooster suddenly recalls his famous Great-Granny, a fabulous chef who penned a book of recipes for future generations. He hunts down her cookbook--<I>The Joy of Cooking Alone</I> by L R Hen. <blockquote> Rooster carefully turned the pages. So many recipes--and I thought she just baked bread! Look at the strawberry shortcake!...Yes sirree--just like Great-Granny, I'll be a cook! COOK- A-DOODLE-DO-O-O!</blockquote> Every child's natural curiosity for cooking will likewise come bursting forth when they settle down to this remarkable tale. There is a great basic story here, with plenty of creative spins on <I>The Little Red Hen</I>. In this version, Rooster--rebuffed by Dog, Cat, and Goose, just like his Granny was--finds companionship in the kitchen with Turtle, Iguana, and Potbellied Pig. As Turtle reads the recipe aloud, Iguana continuously confuses the instructions to great comedic effect. (He tries to cut butter with scissors and beat an egg with a baseball bat, for example.) Pig, on the other hoof, asks over and over for his chance to taste the batter. (Looks mighty dry in there, said Pig. Perhaps I should taste it.) Stevens' sure, friendly illustrations evoke tremendous amount of character and activity in lightning-fast time. Take, for example, the cooking hats all the creatures don when they get to the kitchen: Turtle sports a copper-bottomed soup pot on his head, Iguana wields a candy-striped oven mitt, and Pig is wearing a kitchen towel, tied kerchief-style. They're ready!<p> Scattered through the story are sidebars of cooking tips that offer information on the ingredients, measurements, and techniques mentioned in the text. (Even if kids don't want to read the
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