Chicken Licken by Vera Southgate

Chicken Licken Reviews

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  booklady

  “The sky is falling; the sky is falling!” This delightful chain story with rhyming avian names—Chicken-Licken, Henny-Penny, Cocky-Locky, Ducky-Lucky, Goosey-Loosey, etc.—is led by its littlest member to warn the king of impending doom based on an unseen acorn hitting his noggin. An excellent reminder that small fears can quickly and easily generate into unwarranted crowd hysteria and lead to unfortunate consequences for said crowd, but NOT by the original imagined danger! Ah the Henny Pennies of the world! Let us at least not lead our friends into becoming delicious dinners for Foxy Loxy and his family.
  
  A fun story with a very important message!
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  Waldo Mum

  I'd forgotten the story of chicken licken but enjoyed reading it after someone asked me if I had it in my collection.
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  Shirley Revill

  OMG I really hate this book but my children and grandchildren loved this story. I therefore award it five stars but I think Chicken Licken has a lot to answer for in the great scheme of things.
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  Set

  I enjoyed this story in English when I was a little child. I also knew this tale in Spanish by the name of Pollito Pito in the book Habia una Vez (Once Upon a Time) by Ruth Robes Masses and Herminio Almendros.
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  Dane Cobain

  This is an example of a “cumulative” or “chain” fairy tale in which the story slowly builds up by adding new characters. Bit of a weird moral, though.
  
  
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  Luthfayah

  A story about a chicken who got hit on the hear with an acorn and was adamant the sky was going to fall and the world is coming to an end! Seems far fetched but a lovely read! Chicken Licken meets different animals on the way (Turky Lurky, Ducky Lucky, Goosy Loosy, Henny penny, and at the end Foxy Loxy) who he convinces they should join him to go to the king to let him know the sky was going to fall. We used tat the Fox trihis book for drama lessons in a reception class which the kids absolutely loved. Acting out the different characters and using their imagination. The children were shocked in the end that the Fox tricked all the other animals and led them to his den, where all the other foxes enjoyed them for dinner! A great classic story for children of all ages.
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  Mira Sibug

  This story taught me how to read and love it. My mother bought a read-along copy and I remember playing it over and over and over, following the narrator.
  
  I forgot the title and lost the book as I grew older but been searching for the title ever since. All that I can remember is the line, "...then an acorn fell from the tree."
  
  Found it last night on the internet, read it again and yes, I am happy.
• 
  Kitdog10

  THE SKY IS FALLING DOWN
  
• 
  Jack Middleton

  It is not often that a work can simultaneously explore the dichotomy and shortcomings of the opposing values of a centralised monarchy and the working classes of a socialist society, and continue to maintain a light hearted and affable nature about it. I wish I could say that about Chicken Licken, but it as I ever do regret, I cannot, despite coming so close to achieving such an elusive mark.
  
  Vera Southgate weaves an elegant tale based on a classic fable,
  and builds the foundations of her adaption on the promising themes of monarchy and civil unrest, but fails to address either of these in any meaningful depth. The story begins with Chicken Licken mistakenly identifying an acorn as the sky, and proceeds to fan the flames of an uneducated avian working class who’s feathers are significantly ruffled, and leads them into an intimately fruitless attempt to find ‘the King’, which Licken strongly implies has a solution to the problem he discovered, although never directly promising this or explaining how this may be achieved. Firstly, this is clearly a metaphor for the modern political party structure and our faith in the symbol of authority, rather than an evaluation of the person, or persons, holding those seats of power. As relevant as this issue is today, and this is certainly the most pleasing a achievement of Southgate’s work, her presentation of this in the narrative is over simplistic, and boarders on cleché, as well as stereotype. Her choice to present the significant figure of the imposter, the opportunistic fox and his family, is predicable at best, and is as about surprising as the rest of her story. The ending is predictable, in fact, it is clearly stated that an acorn is the cause of the unrest, not only at the start of the story, but also on the text on the back cover of the edition I read. An error if there ever was one. Why don’t we publish the ending to ‘the Mouse Trap’ while we’re at it.
  
  As much as I think this book falls short, I enjoyed the read, and found it achieved a basic sense as to how a people can be easily lead to disaster by an unfounded and misguided call to action. I would recommend to anyone who is looking for something light of heart but don’t expect too much from it.
  
  The pictures were good
• 
  Judith Johnson

  There’s a wonderful YouTube going the rounds at the moment of a Scotswoman reading a story about a donkey out loud to her infant grandson, and I think Chicken Licken comes into the same category of repetition coupled with the kind of wordplay and rhyming sounds which little children love so much.
  
  Like The Big Pancake and The Gingerbread Man, this is the cautionary tale of not perhaps always trusting the offer of help from strangers. Think my grand=daughter will love it!
• 
  Stephen Theaker

  Wanted to read something special for my 4000th book read, so I came back to the first author I read for pleasure on my own. Did not expect it to be so topical. Love Peter Barrett’s illustrations too, especially the foxes’ expressions at the end.
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  Krisz

  I like it that not all children stories are fairy tales. It was good to establish with my 4-yr-old in the very beginning that CL is a silly little chick...
  The pictures are beautiful (Peter Barret).
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  Isca Silurum

  The basis of Trump and Farage's political campaigns. OK for children, but dangerous when used to deal with country bumpkins and rednecks! :-(
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  Katrina Lybbert

  I really like the illustrations in this version.
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  Danielle

  All time childhood favourite!!!!
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  Lynn Smith

  Enjoyable tale and rediscovered with my niece.
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  Annisa Nur Widya

  Khas buku anak-anak yang kalimatnya terus di ulang, dengan penambahan tokoh berbeda-beda. Walaupun ujungnya plot twist haha
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  Justine

  An oldie but goodie. My kids loved this one.
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  Smn

  The first book I ever read..when I was in grade 3 maybe or 4..and after that I guess I officially signed to become a BIBLIOPHILE 🙊😂👍🌟💞
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  Phil Syphe

  Can't remember anything about this except for the cover, but I read this children’s classic a few times in childhood. Reckon the last time would’ve been when I was eight or nine, circa 1983-4.
  
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  Dancingsocks

  One of my childhood favourites
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  Na

  agak syok ya bund endingnya, dannn scenenya banyak yang diulang-ulang
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  Marts (Thinker)

  Now who didn't enjoy the tale of Chicken Licken, Hen Len, and all the others?!
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  Ciara

  gr8
  
• 
  Adele

  Reliving my childhood with these vintage Ladybird "Well-Loved Tales" - love the rhyming animal procession off to tell the King the sky was falling down, but had somehow banished from my memory their tragic end! Nasty Foxy Loxy and his family...