A to Z Challenge Day 3: C
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 5 Stars                   REVIEW #100

Chicken adds a beautiful statue in Girl’s city made of blocks.  Cities are exciting!  Along comes Pig, zipping, zapping, and zooming—until he smashes into Chicken’s’s statue, destroying it—and Girl’s city. Pig gets angry and goes off in a huff. Will the friends be able to put the city back together again? More importantly, will they be able to rebuild their friendship?

Chicken, Pig, Cow’s First Fight is the sixth picture book in Ruth Ohi’s children’s series.  It is delightful.  Girl builds a block city and Chicken decides it needs a statue to make it a perfect city.  What city does not have some sort of statue of one of its illustrious citizens? So he makes one—of himself.  Pig finds the city exciting and loves zipping and zapping around its streets.

“Be careful,” said Chicken.

“I’m too fast to be careful,” said Pig. “Look out for me!”

On Pig’s next pass he zooms too close to Chicken’s statue and knocks it down.  Chicken and Pig have their first ever fight, leaving Cow unsure what to do.  Pig tries to fix the statue but he couldn’t get the leaves to stay where he placed them.

“Lousy leaves!” yelled Pig.  And then he ran off.

Pig was angry with himself and frustrated he could not fix the problem.  He went and hid.  Dog sees Pig knock his red ball into the city, destroying the buildings. Dog is afraid Girl will blame him and trade him for a Cat.  Everyone gets together and rebuilds the city, except for Pig who is still hiding.  How will Chicken and Pig’s first fight end?  Will it end?  Oh, my, this is one story you cannot miss.

When the author and illustrator have the same vision, the picture book becomes a gem.  Ruth Ohi does both jobs so it is no surprise that Chicken, Pig, Cow’s First Fight is such a delightful story and book.  Each character is expressive, mainly through their eyes, but the body language is also evident in this book.  The story and illustrations are simply delightful.  No other word works. Okay, charming works,as does amusing, playful, entertaining, and fun.  The illustrations are warm watercolors that give each character an inviting appeal children will adore.

I find it interesting that not one character has an actual name.  The pig is simply Pig, cow is Cow, dog is Dog, and girl is Girl.  Oh, and chicken is Chicken.  But, when I read the story, the Girl became “Sue” and the story became part mine.  I like that.  What works best in Chicken, Pig, Cow’s First Fight is children can be whatever character they desire, simply giving the character their own name.  The only downside is my siblings and I would have fought over who got to be Pig and race around the city.  Chicken, Pig, and Cow’s First Fight is a winner.  A good bedtime story with the quietly told message on the importance of team work and saying “I’m sorry.”

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Chicken, Pig, Cow’s First Fight

Author: Ruth Ohi
Illustrator: Ruth Ohi
Publisher: Annick Press (Firefly in Canada)
ISBN: 978-1-55451-370-3
Release date: 2012
Number of Pages: 30
Ages: 2 to 5

A to Z Challenge Day 3: C