In Huff's rollicking picture boo, 10 chickens come to life and enjoy barnyard fun.  A group of 10 chickens enjoy farmyard fun--sharing adventures, avoiding bees, playing ball, doing tricks, and dancing.  Fedan's full-color illustrations create a chaotic feel, adding to the silly and engaging tone of the story.  The text integrates many pre-academic skills associated with early literacy and math development, including rhythm, rhyme, onomatopoeia, and counting.  The musicality makes this book soar, balancing rhymes with sounds that chickens would make while bringing imaginative fun to the barnyard:  "Chicken three and chicken four,/playing ball and keeping score./  Bakk baba bakk baba bakk bakk bakk!" 

The text is clearly written and designed to showcase the joy of reading--varied rhyme schemes encourage early literacy skills without feeling didactic.  Although the illustrations and changing fonts can seem messy, the color palate and strong black outlines add some structure and help support the silly quality of the proceedings.  This is not a narrative containing a clear plot structure; the book would work best as a guided reading experience with a more experienced reader pointing out details, or the test could be sung as a song.  The gentle absurdity of the birds' antics is sure to entice early readers and chicken enthusiasts alike. 

A perfect pick to illustrate the fun of reading for the very young.