CHICKENS TO THE RESCUE

With hilarious, Keystone Kops–style urgency, chickens scurry, flop, leap, flap, peck and stumble to the rescue when Farmer Greenstalk drops his watch down the well, when Mrs. Greenstalk collapses in exhaustion into an easy chair just before dinnertime, when Ernie the duck tries to drive off in the pickup and more. Repeating the chorus of “CHICKENS TO THE RESCUE!” above spacious, full-spread rural scenes, Himmelman decks the frantic flock out in swimwear, chef’s hats and other garb appropriate to each mishap, and leaves the beneficiaries of each foray appreciative—or at least bemused. After a week, though, enough is enough, so when daughter Emily Greenstalk semi-deliberately knocks her breakfast onto the floor, the chickens stay nestled out in the hen house—passing the torch to another set of quick-off-the-mark livestock. Further proof, as if it were needed, that chickens are funny. (Picture book. 5-7)