It’s been a year of firsts for my first-born: First year of full-day school, first bus ride, first spin on a roller coaster, first time riding a two-wheeler, and the first time reading a chapter book from start to finish without a single bit of help.
Continuing my week-long series of super summer reads, today I am sharing a title that will forever hold a special place in my 6-year-old’s heart: The Trouble with Chickens: A J.J. Tully Mystery.
I suppose it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that a book about a retired search-and-rescue dog named Jonathon Joseph Tully (J.J. for short) would encourage my canine-loving first grader to put her reading skills to the test. From the moment my daughter caught site of J.J.’s beady eyes, crooked ears and chiseled schnoz going tip-to-tip with a bespectacled piece of fluff on the cover The Trouble with Chickens, she was in chapter-book heaven.
Then, she opened the book… and the rest was scrapbook history.
Actually, I wish I had kept a video scrapbook of my daughter’s adventure reading The Trouble with Chickens instead of merely creating a traditional layout featuring the book’s jacket, a few journaling blocks and photos of my child with her face buried in the 128-page tome. Oh.Yes.I.Did.
If I had the foresight to whip out the camera while she was reading I would have recorded gems like this:
“Mommy, listen to this funny part when J.J. is talking about the chicks: ‘They were half yellow, half white—like fuzzy popcorn kernels with feet.’ Fuzzy popcorn kernels with feet! That’s so funny!! ‘They were new enough to this world to be spitting up eggshell.’ Spitting up the outside of an egg? (giggle, giggle) I love this book!”
I about died from the cuteness. Or maybe it was pride.
Regardless, bestselling author Doreen Cronin’s exquisitely descriptive writing and her unparalleled ability to weave humor into a half-baked mystery about a passionate pooch searching for missing chicks made it almost impossible for my daughter to release her clutches on The Trouble with Chickens.
In fact, I had to wait until she fell asleep in order to get my first look at the book. I eventually discovered that J.J. gets wrangled into looking for the walking pieces of popcorn after being approached by a frantic mother hen named Millicent, who J.J. calls Moosh.
Moosh introduces J.J. to two of her puffy chicks named Little Boo and Peep. He instantly nicknames them Dirt and Sugar “for no particular reason” and learns that their siblings may have been kidnapped by the sinister canine, Vince the Funnel.
Although he’s a dog, J.J. reminds me of the wisecracking Foghorn J., I say, Foghorn J. Leghorn. The rooster and the retired pooch share the same sharp wit and insatiable appetite. (J.J. agrees to take sniff out the chicks’ kidnapper for a burger.)
Throughout the book the detective dog employs deadpan humor and gets in some real zingers at the expense of the often overbearing Moosh. Adding to the pleasurable reading experience are the cartoonish black-and-white illustrations artfully rendered by Kevin Cornell. The well-placed drawings help make the book even more relatable to young readers.
I won’t give away the surprise ending (it’s a mystery after all), but I will say that your child will love following all the twists and turns that make this book a priceless page-turner.
The Trouble with Chickens: A J.J. Tully Mystery is a terrific read-aloud book for 6 to 8 year olds or a silent selection for older, independent readers. If you are looking for a way to keep kids engaged in reading during summer vacation, you’ll definitely want to add this chicken caper to your list of must-read books.
The Trouble with Chickens: A J.J. Tully Mystery can be found at HarperCollins.com as well as major book stores across the country.