SING HIGH, SING CROW

Chirpy the chick comes up with a peaceable response when the raucous rehearsals of an avian rock band perched in the trees cause sleepless nights in the chicken coop below.

The jays, crows, and other corvid members of the Crow Family Band caw all the louder after boorish poultry bully Clucky sourly complains about their “noise.” In a demonstration of gravity, they also hurl acorns at the chickens. But Chirpy finds a harmonic solution to the problem when she takes a trip to the local public school, where she often secretly listens in on lessons, and learns about rhythm and pitch…and makes the “eggs”-citing discovery that musical notes are fractions. Back at the coop, she composes a lullaby (“Sing the quarter notes fast / Cheep cheep cheep cheep / Sing the whole notes slooooow / Cheeeeeeeep / You’re getting sleepy at last / Off to dreamland you go”), forms a band (Cheep Trick), and soon has both feathered flocks singing themselves to sleep in sweet “caw-ncert.” Sporting a bow decorated with musical notes, Chirpy is easy to spot among the avians in Alder’s grayscale and yellow illustrations, and the human children in school are depicted with a range of skin tones. Clever puns and endearing characters help Chirpy’s “There’s math in music” message shine.

Conflict resolution in the farmyard, with musical notes and a few sly yolks.