Three clever chickens outwit their abductors—and save themselves from certain death—in this pro-poultry tale. Barkus and Sly Fox are introduced in the opening; Lambert’s (Little Ones Do, 2001, etc.) soft-edged vignettes show the titular cousins as they lurk about the village at night then grab their loot from a local hen house (“ ‘I would like a plump roast chicken for my supper,’ said Barkus”). But Biddy, Bluff, and Tweed have chutzpah; since the thieves have put them in a shed overnight, they also have time to hatch a plan (“No one is going to serve us with cream sauce”). Searching for a way to escape the shed, Tweed stumbles upon a box of stolen cutlery. Among the forks and knives is a golden ladle. Lambert’s double-paged, full-bleed spread reveals the ruse: Biddy sits on a nest with the rounded orb of the ladle peeking out from beneath her tail feathers. “If you eat one of us she’ll be so upset she won’t lay,” Tweed tells her hungry captor, and he decides to let them be. The tightly woven narrative moves toward a satisfying conclusion as greed causes a rift between the cousins and eventually leads to freedom for the flock. McAllister’s take on a time-honored theme is vibrant and fresh; quickly paced, the narrative is just right for reading aloud. (Picture book. 4-8)
