Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road product reviews

Pretty much every adult I know knows a joke or many jokes based on this one simple line. When I saw this book up for review I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to read it. I wanted to show it to my two kids and introduce them to this timeless joke and see how they reacted.

The bright, bold colours on the front page are continued throughout the book and really bring a happy upbeat feeling. The story is about a little chicken who is recounting his story of going across the road to his mother and brother. He explains that he encounters various animals and situations which he had never been in before and what he did to get home safely.

I do love a good rhyming book and find that I usually put more emphasis into reading it when it does. I also quite liked how some of the words are in actual speech bubbles rather than just in quotes on the page, it gave it more of a feeling of the animals actually talking and made me feel like I had to create funny voices for each character.

After we'd finished reading the story my daughter was trying to guess the answers to the jokes at the end of the book and roared with laughter at each one. This was such a nice way to end a bedtime story even if it didn't make her sleepy. A child's laughter is very contagious and hearing that at the end of a long work day is what life is all about, in my opinion anyway.

Both my kids really enjoyed the book with them each taking a turn to sleep with it, which basically means looking at all the pictures in the dark until they fall asleep with it left open. Any book that encourages my children to read (well the 5 year old reads but the 2 year old still just pretends) is a winner to me.

"Why did the chicken cross the road?" is a fabulous title for a book. What child (or adult) could resist the chance to open the cover to find out the answer to this popular joke. The chickens on the front cover show a bit of attitude and made me assume that there was some cheekiness and humour in the book.

The chicken in the story goes off on an accidental adventure across the road. Although it may have seemed like an exciting adventure to the young chicken, the reality was much more scary. The little brother didn't hear all the scary parts of the story when it was retold to him. He had to go out and find out for himself. This book could be a chance to talk to children about the importance of listening to their parents and being careful with the decisions that they make. It is also a chance to reflect on the experiences that other people have had and to consider the danger of embarking on such exploits given the information handed to them.

The book uses some lovely words to create action and when I was reading it, I couldn't help but speak faster and with a bit more excitement in certain parts of the book. "He snapped at me; I sidestepped past, Then crossed the road and took off fast!" This is a particular part of the book that got some action into my reading.

The illustrations are exciting and the expressions on the animal's faces are delightful. Each page is worth pausing on for a while to look at the illustrations so that the children will really enjoy them.

The book is fun to read and my kids loved it. There is a good sense of rhyme and rhythm in the text. Mr Six really enjoys jokes and he read out all of the jokes at the back. The back cover of a book is part of a book that I often don't look at and I noticed that Mr Six found the jokes on there too. It goes to show that children will look in places that adults don't! "Tough Cluck" is a phrase from the book which caught the attention of all the adults who read at the book too. Quiet chuckles could be heard as they got to that particular page! It is always good when there is something to capture the adults as well as the children in a book. The jokes at the end of the book were also a hit with adults and children alike.