Chicky Chicky Chook Chook (review)

MacLennan's debut picture book features extensive onomatopoeia in a lighthearted tale of changing weather. The featured cast (chicks, bees, and kitties) starts the day warm in the yellow sunshine but soon raindrops begin to fall, quickly intensifying into an eye-boggling thunderstorm. A gentle breeze and more sunshine follow, and the rain-drenched creatures dry out. The plotline is slim and the character development even slimmer, and the tongue-twisting phrases ("Fizzy, fizzy, buzz buzz,/ fizz, fizz buzz./ Fizzy, fizzy, buzz buzz,/ busy . . . busy . . . buzzzzzz") get a little wearing on reader-aloud if not listener after awhile. Nonetheless, the energetic, sound-based language makes for a playful, quick readaloud. Employing a palette of mostly yellow, blue, green, and white and painted on brown corrugated cardboard, the animated paintings feature chicks, bees, and kitties in motion, busily pecking, buzzing, and scattering through the sunny parts of the day and growing visibly perturbed as the thunder begins to crash. Thickly applied brushstrokes suggest feathers and fur, punctuated with the crisp geometry of beaks, legs, and other details. The large-scale images will register well across a crowded storytime carpet, and young listeners just may have a go at imitating the range of sounds and noises resonating through the story's pages.