Cluck-A-Doodle--Doo! Chickens On the Farm by Dizzy Harris

Before the sun is up, the chickens on the farm huddle in their warm coop, a sort of house for chickens. When the rooster crows, the hens leave their roosts or nests, to start their day. If the hens have any baby chicks, the little ones follow their moms outside to scratch around with the rooster for fresh food like seeds, worms or bugs.

But the chicken farmer usually appears with some grain to feed them, especially the little ones, to make sure the chicks have enough food to grow big and healthy.

In Dizzy Harris' Chickens on the Farm (Bullfrog Books: Farm Animals) (Bullfrog Books, 2021) preschool and primary graders learn about those famous farm animals--the chickens--and how they are raised on farms.

With large accurately colored and labeled illustrations, young readers learn poultry nomenclature--hen, rooster, chick, eggs-- and chicken coloration, from showy red rooster combs and fancy tail feathers, and the more blendable hens' colors of brown, white, and brindle, their basic physiology--claws, combs, feathers, beaks,--and other chicken vocabulary--coop, eggs, hatch, grain, bugs, peck, and crow--and follow them through their day from first crow to last cluck in the coop at night.

Considerate of the age of his readers, author Harris' text delicately offers no discussion of the chicks' future as chicken nuggets or chicken noodle soup in his narration. The author does, however, provide many of the parts of a good non-fiction book--title page, table of contents, a labeled Parts of the Chicken schematic drawing, a glossary, index, and other resources on line in his Fact Surfer section-- all to get his beginning readers familiar with proper non-fiction reading for the research reports in their futures.

This well-illustrated and designed educational series offers similar informational books on various farm animals in this series, good to read aloud as preparation for school field trips or for beginning readers who want to know more about those animals down on the farm.