The Rooster's Gift

Pam Conrad wrote many award-winning books for children, including the immensely popular The Tub People and The Tub Grandfather, both illustrated by Richard Egielski. She is also the author of a number of critically acclaimed novels, including Prairie Songs, a 1986 ALA Best Children's Book of the Year and a 1985 ALA Golden Kite Honor Book, and Stonewords, winner of the 1991 Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Juvenile Mystery.

PreSchool-Grade 2?It takes the author a long time to get to the point in this story about recognizing and accepting one's talents. When a new clutch of eggs hatches, the farmer's wife expresses her hope that one of the chicks will be a rooster with "The Gift." Although readers never discover what she means, the rooster assumes it is his ability to "make the day" by calling up the sun each morning. He is disconsolate when he discovers that the sun can rise perfectly well without him. An admiring hen helps him to realize that not every chicken can call to the sun, and the book ends with Rooster acknowledging the quality of his powerful "Cot Cot Cot Cot Ca-toodle tooooooo!" His loyal friend Small Hen reinforces a secondary theme of unconditional love. The pictures, executed in bright, highly saturated browns, blues, reds, and greens, are at first glance quite appealing, featuring fluffy chicks, elegant roosters, and scenery that recalls the farming country vistas in Wanda Gag's Millions of Cats (Putnam, 1977). But repeated readings expose the illustrations' repetitiveness, rotating among interior views of chicken coop, the coop's roof where Rooster crows, and east-facing views of the admittedly glorious sunrise. Children who enjoy a leisurely exploration of a theme may find this just their thing; others may find some of Aesop's fables, with their briskly stated moral conclusions, more to their liking.?Ellen Fader, Multnomah County Library, Portland, OR
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