CLUCK O’CLOCK

A busy day down on the farm is the premise for this lesson in telling time, focusing on a coop full of perky hens with names such as Jane, Marge, and Freda, and their resident rooster, Colin. The rhyming text includes various ways of stating the time, with the repeating pun of “o’cluck” instead of “o’clock.” A small clock, shaped like an egg, precedes the relevant text, showing each new time designation. The hens are a funny flock in both their actions throughout the day and in the way they are portrayed in the illustrations, with different imaginative colorations and characteristics to lend each of them individuality. In the story’s climax, the chickens fend off a dramatic midnight attack from a fox named Olga (a welcome female villain), who gets mud in her eye and fleas in her ears to send her packing. Funny stories that make the potentially boring subject of telling time more interesting are welcome any time in the kindergarten and first-grade classroom, and teachers and librarians will be happy to give this tale a few minutes in story hours about chickens or clocks. (Picture book. 4-8)