Katherine Battersby is an Australian author/illustrator now living in Canada with her family. Before heading into the world of children’s literature she worked as a paediatric occupational therapist, to date she has written over a dozen books for children. Party Animals is the second book in the Cranky Chicken graphic novel series with a third book already in the making.
What can one super speedy worm do to help out a super cranky chicken? Well, this book is here to show us what to do! Maybe Chicken is just hangry (hungry + angry), but worms and chickens eat completely different things so how can one overly enthusiastic worm figure out what the chicken really wants to eat?
Next the worm tries an unsurprising surprise party, it has to be unsurprising as Chicken hates surprises… they make him cranky. And after all of that then maybe a trip to the beach is in order! After all, who doesn’t love a trip to the beach?
This graphic novel is aimed at very early readers just graduating from picture books. It looks at how people (or in this case, animals) with completely opposing personalities and likes can become friends and accommodate for each other’s needs. It’s an important lesson for young children to understand that not everyone is the same but that doesn’t mean that we can’t all be friendly and understanding of each other.
The simplistic and bright illustrations paired with the straightforward storytelling all help to make this a fun and easy read for younger audiences. Having the book split into three distinct but still related stories will also allow this to be a good paced book for any reluctant readers.
