Cock-A-Doodle-Hooooooo!

Manning and Granstrom (Snap!) team up again to offer another goodhearted, vividly populated comedy. A cute little owl has taken refuge in a hen house on a stormy night, and the ditzy hens don't know what to do with him. They need a rooster, but clearly he's not up to snuff: spoofing Olympics scoring, Manning notes, ""The hens awarded him no points for pecking""; even after careful tutelage, he can't properly cock-a-doodle-do. But when an egg-eating rat is discovered in the henhouse, the exasperated Owl-who has known he's an owl all along-is finally able to prove his worth. ""He caught the rat and gobbled it up... The hens were speechless!"" By book's end, Owl is not only declared a hero, he's also a swaggering cock of the walk. Working in large-scale, generously rendered watercolors, Granstrom again proves her adeptness with visual narrative and comic momentum. Her Owl is a winning fish-out-of-water, and her wide-eyed, dim-witted hens are a hoot as well. Ages 3-7.