Where Do Chicks Come From? (Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science 1)

From School Library Journal
PreSchool-Grade 2 - Sklansky's clear and accurate text begins with fertilization when the rooster's "sperm joins the growing egg" and concludes with the dry, fluffy baby. She uses the correct terminology to discuss the anatomy of the egg and the purpose of each part. She also explains that the "egg you eat for breakfast" is unfertilized and cannot grow into a chick. As the hen sits on her nest for the 21-day incubation period, the day-to-day development of the embryonic chick is detailed in easy-to-understand paragraphs and full-color drawings. The illustrations are soft and friendly, but retain enough realism for children to understand the subject matter. Suggested activities and a list of stories about chicks are appended. This is an enjoyable and informative introduction to scientific information. - Carolyn Janssen, Public Library of Cincinnati & Hamilton County, OH Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
K-Gr. 2. From the Let's-Read-and-Find-Out series, this informative book presents the growth of a chick during 21 days. Beginning as a "tiny white spot" inside the mother, the egg is fertilized and forms a white, a yolk, and a shell. The hen lays the egg, keeps it warm, turns it, and clucks to it. After 20 days, the chick begins to breathe and to make sounds. It pecks at its shell until it hatches. Then the hen warms the chick while its feathers dry. Neither flowery nor clinical, Sklansky's straightforward presentation hits just the right note for young children, who will find the details of life inside the egg fascinating. Paparone contributes a series of illustrations in warm tones, set against clean, white backgrounds. Including many cutaway drawings of chickens and eggs, the clearly delineated pictures are often rounded in form and warmed with sunny colors. This fine book concludes with a double-page spread featuring activities to try at home and a half-dozen chick-themed picture books to read aloud. Carolyn Phelan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Book Description

ANNOTATION

Describes what happens day-by-day for the three weeks from the time a hen lays an egg until the baby chick hatches.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Have you ever seen a hen sitting on a nest of eggs? Have you wondered why she is sitting there? That hen is keeping her eggs warm until they are ready to hatch—into chicks! But before a hen can lay her eggs, many things have to happen. In this simple introduction to the development of a fertilized egg into a chick, young readers are given a glimpse into the secret inner workings of the egg—and the growing chick inside.

About the Author:

Amy E. Sklansky is the author of From the Doghouse: Poems to Chew On and Skeleton Bones and Goblin Groans: Poems for Halloween (both Henry Holt). Where Do Chicks Come From? is her third book for children. A former editor of children's books, Ms. Sklansky now writes them. She lives in St. Louis, Missouri, with her husband and two young children.

FROM THE CRITICS

Children's Literature - Ken Marantz and Sylvia Marantz

The answer to the title question is told clearly and simply, beginning with an egg. An interior cross-section of a chicken shows how and where the eggs grow. The role of the rooster in fertilizing the egg is only mentioned. After the egg is laid, we are shown a cross-section of a fertilized egg, which is distinguished from the eggs we eat. The chick grows inside the egg day by day as the hen keeps the eggs warm and turns them. By the 20th day the chick is ready to begin picking its way laboriously out of the shell. Soon all the chicks are hatched and soon ready to search for food. Natural history is presented here with a concern for the esthetics of image and page design along with correct information. The scenes of the hen caring for her laid eggs are attractive, while the sequential pictures of the developing chick in its shell home are carefully accurate. The final scene of a quartet of newborn chicks completes the story begun with the image of a single egg. This is a Stage 1 volume of the "Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science" series. There are two pages of additional information at the end, and chickens galore on the end-papers. 2005, HarperCollins Publishers, Ages 3 to 7.

School Library Journal

PreS-Gr 2-Sklansky's clear and accurate text begins with fertilization when the rooster's "sperm joins the growing egg" and concludes with the dry, fluffy baby. She uses the correct terminology to discuss the anatomy of the egg and the purpose of each part. She also explains that the "egg you eat for breakfast" is unfertilized and cannot grow into a chick. As the hen sits on her nest for the 21-day incubation period, the day-to-day development of the embryonic chick is detailed in easy-to-understand paragraphs and full-color drawings. The illustrations are soft and friendly, but retain enough realism for children to understand the subject matter. Suggested activities and a list of stories about chicks are appended. This is an enjoyable and informative introduction to scientific information.-Carolyn Janssen, Public Library of Cincinnati & Hamilton County, OH Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews