Tanya Hennessy is a very popular multimedia personality who has written several books including the picture book Pink Santa. Shiloh Gordon has been illustrating for more than twenty years whose work includes the Frog Squad and Fur Power series.
This is a story about a rooster who is an entertainer, a humorist, and a star ( a bit like the author) but he can’t get his one line right. We all know what is supposed to follow when he calls out ‘Cockadoodle…’ but he gets it woefully wrong every single time until the very last page. After each failure he talks to himself, trying to get into the zone, the mood, take a minute, remember to be calm etc before his big moment. He has a companion, a little ladybug whose comments as each disaster unfolds add some mordant humour.
Shiloh has fun creating an over the top rooster who is at the point of being fired by the exasperated farmer. The cows and chickens aren’t impressed either. Multiple changing fonts add energy and zing to each page as the situation becomes more and more drastic with the rooster becoming more panicked by each failure as evidenced by his increasingly manic expressions.
This story will appeal to those children who enjoy exaggeration, a predicatable text and exhuberant art. We all get it wrong sometimes and this is a lovely story of someone who keeps trying until he gets it right.
