David Ezra Stein Blog Tour: Day 8

Knock. knock. Who's there? Interrupting chicken. Interrup— bok! bok! Interrupting Chicken, the picture book!

Welcome "bok!" to this fun 9-day tour to promote Stein's comical new book, inspired by the classic interrupting animal joke.

Some of you know this joke as the interrupting cow joke, but alas, cows don't have poofed-up combs or fuss about going to bed  -- all qualities that make the chicken in this book so charming.

Stein, who won the 2008 Ezra Jack Keats New Author Award for his picture book Leaves about a little bear who tries to reattach fallen leaves to a tree, is also the author-illustrator of Pouch!, The Nice Book and Cowboy Ned & Andy.

I hope you enjoy my review, then check out my chat with Stein and click links to other great blogs on the tour.

Interrupting Chicken

Written & illustrated by David Ezra Stein

Candlewick Press, 2010

$16.99, ages 4-8, 40 pages

A pert little chicken cuts into her papa's bedtime stories, then gets a taste for how it feels to be interrupted while reading aloud in this adorable picture book.

The little red chicken doesn't mean to be a bother, but whenever Papa gets to a part where something really bad is about to happen, the little red chicken can't help herself and clucks out warnings to characters.

Jumping onto the pages of Papa's fairy tale book, she first warns Hansel and Gretel not to go into the witch's candy house and later yells in Little Red Riding's face, "Don't talk to strangers!" just as the big bad wolf is about to lure her off the path.

Each time she interrupts, the story screeches to a halt and the little red chicken flashes Papa a big, sweet smile and promises if he'd just read one more little story, she'd definitely be good.

My Chat with David Ezra Stein

Jenny. Many of us at one time or another blurt things out while someone else is speaking, which can be annoying but also the source of a lot of humor -- the Interrupting Cow knock knock joke, for example, never seems to get old. What drew you to this subject and why did you know it would be funny not only to children but adults?

David. I come from a family where folks get really excited about ideas and sometimes all want to express themselves at once. So that experience is definitely in the book. :)

The real seed of this book was, I'd heard the interrupting chicken joke and thought it was funny, and I wondered, "Who is this chicken anyway? Why does it interrupt?" There was a character there waiting to be discovered.

I'm glad I heard it with a chicken first, not a cow, because chickens are funnier than cows. Moos are funny sounding, but the word cow is not that funny. The word chicken is instant comedy in and of itself!

I knew the book would be funny to a wide audience because parents can relate to the dad's growing frustration with Chicken's interruptions, and kids can relate to the exuberance of the chicken, who knows how she should be acting, but can't help herself. She loves stories too much! And she can't stand idly by while the characters in the bedtime stories get into a jam.

Jenny. I love the way the combs on the little red chicken and her papa look like bouffant hair-dos and the waffles resemble handlebar moustaches. What is it about poultry that cracks you up and is any animal as funny as a chicken? If so, which one and why does it make you laugh?

David. The chicken is the king (or queen) of comedy. (See #1 above.) The clucking, the feathers, the way they cock their heads… I would be ruining it by delving too deeply into the "why". They just are!