As a former ballerina, I couldn't resist taking this book home with me from the library. The main character is a chicken named Poulette who dreams of leaving her farm and becoming a star ballerina. Every day, instead of pecking for grain or gossiping with the other chickens, she laces on her pointe shoes and practices. One day, a fox who claims to be an agent from New York comes to her farm and asks her to be the star in his show. After several days of temptations from the fox, including a beautiful bedazzled tutu and the promise of a packed house for her debut performance, Poulette gives in. It is only in the finale number of her performance that she finally realizes that the fox intends to eat her! Poulette, however, exacts revenge upon the fox, using her strong legs from her hours of ballet practice to grand jeté him away. She and her friends then scare the fox away for good.
The illustrations most definitely enhanced the story line, especially at the moment where the fox tries to eat Poulette. The expression portrayed on her face is just hilarious, and the picture seems to jump off the page. In addition to this page, throughout the story the pictures were fun and engaging. The colors were full of energy and the details (like the sparkles on Poulette's tutu) were just enough to be perfect.
I did find this story rather hilarious, especially when the chickens were sitting on the fox and plotting what types of food they were going to make out of him. They suggest fox chops with applesauce, foxburgers, and roast fox with chestnut stuffing, all of which were quite funny. At the same time, however, I was not sure that I liked the message that it could have been sending. It seemed to me that the book may have been encouraging children to give bullies a taste of their own medicine. While I certainly want children to stand up to bullies, as Poulette and her friends did, I do not want them to think it is appropriate to treat bullies the way that bullies treat others.
I wanted to see if others felt the same way about the book's message, and I found a couple of different reviews. This one is by a second grade student, and she makes no mention of the idea of treating bullies the way they treat others. Rather, she just finds the fox very funny. This one appreciated that, in the end, the chickens demonstrated mercy by letting the fox go free. And finally, this one thought that the book gave an inspiring message about believing in yourself. So, perhaps I was too quick to judge the book? Have you read it to children? What do you think about it?
Hmm... that's a really interesting idea about bullies. I'm not sure what I think about it. As I was reading this review it sounded to me as if it was kind of a mix of a "go for your dreams" and a "don't trust everyone you meet"/Little Red Riding Hood type story. I feel like I would have to read it for myself to make any real decision.
ReplyDeleteI like that his book is like an old familiar fairy tail with a twist. It sounds like a good read. Do you think it is to girly for me to full off.
ReplyDeleteI could see how the book might portray a "show your bullies what they deserve" mentality, but I think I'd have to give it a closer look. I love the different fox foods and think kids would too!
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