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Thursday, June 23, 2011

The Wolf's Chicken Stew

Title: The Wolf's Chicken Stew
Author/Illustrator: Keiko Kasza
Publisher: Puffin (April 16, 1996)
Genre: Children's Picture Book
Readability Lexile: Preschool-2nd Grade
The Wolf's Chicken Stew   [WOLFS CHICKEN STEW] [Hardcover]  Summary of Text and Target Audience:
Wolf loves to eat almost more than anything else in the world.One day he has a terrible craving for chicken stew.  he spots a chicken who seems just right, but then he thinks how much more stew there will be if he fattens her up before dining himself.  So he goes home and begins to cook all kinds of scrumptious meals for the chicken to eat.  A big surprise was in store for the wolf when he finally visited Mrs. Chicken- he had been feeding her 100 chicks! This is a great story for Preschool-2nd Grade because of the fun voices that can be represented and the repetitive and predictable sequence of events.

Evaluation of Text:

The character grew- The big bad old wolf, although very preoccupied with the fattening of his meal throughout a majority of the story, makes a significant viewpoint change when he brings the last meal to fatten up his chicken and realizes he has been feeding a band of small chicks who immediately take to Mr. Wolf and brand him with the name of Uncle Wolf.  Mr. Wolf leaves the chicken's house feeling enamored with the little chicks and says he will bake them something for the next day.

Theme worthwhile- In my opinion, the theme of the story was even the best laid plans may not be what you expect.  The story is entertaining and the wolf gets the surprise of finding out he is feeding all of this chickens' chicks with the food she was supposed to be eating to fatten her up for his stew.  His heart then turns from a heart of stone to a heart of gold as he plans his next meal to feed the little chicks.

Personality/Action Match- In this story, the hen was the oblivious and object of the wolf's need to eat.  we don't know what is happening to her while the wolf is making all of these plans.  However, when she opens the door she continues to act surprised and oblivious and unaware that the wolf was trying to fatten her up to eat her.  The wolf is maniacal and devious and he secretly plans all of these meals and leaves them on the door.  On the night of the planned attack he creeps up to the door only to be surprised by the warmness and the kindness of the chicken and her chicks.

Literary Elements:

Style- The style of writing was very simple sentences with very little description.  The wofl does have some dialogue as well as the chicken and her chicks, and the wolf goes from very refined language of, "Eat well, my pretty chicken. Get nice and fat for my stew!" to "Aw, shucks, maybe tomorrow I'll back the little critters a hundred scrumptious cookies!"

Climactic- The story begins with an exciting beginning as the wolf plans to eat the chicken in the first few pages but reflects and becomes greedy and decides to cook for the chicken to make her fatter so he has more stew for himself.  The anticipation again builds as he cooks 100 pancakes, doughnuts and a 100 pound cake to feed the chicken.  On the night of his planned attack he is stunned to find he has been feeding her family and becomes Uncle Wolf.

Situational Irony- As mentioned in almost every paragraph above, the wolf is met with a different situation than is expected and the ending chosen of having the wolf become a part of the family is much more appropriate than the alternative.

Illustrations:
The illustrations in this text are amazing- they are fun and beautifully done! The characters are very expressive which makes for an even more entertaining text.  The expressiveness of the wolf in particular is fun to look at because he goes from a creepy animal hiding behind a tree to quite bashful at the end of the story after being called Uncle Wolf.

Mini-lesson:
For this story, I would focus on predicting.  The wolf has some very predictable and repetitive language which makes for an amazing read-aloud.  The dialogue during the story would also be fun to do with the students and have them practice using their different voices for the wolf and the chicken as well as the chicks for the younger grades.

2 comments:

  1. I like the character transformation of the wolf! Funny that he becomes Uncle Wolf!

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  2. I think that using prediction with this story would be such a great idea. Not only does the story lend itself so nicely to prediction but it has a surprising ending that not many readers would see coming.

    I like the different ending.

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