An invitation to a party brings neighboring animals to visit and play Pin the Tail on the Donkey (Donkey really doesn’t want to play that), Hide and Seek and Horseshoes using Horse’s shoes. Singing and dancing follows, and then the barnyard animals sit down to dinner. When that turns out to be large pots of cornbread, Rooster rudely leaves, declaring cornbread to be his everyday fare. However, once he learns that a wonderful and varied feast was hidden in the cornbread, he sulks and is never again content to see only what is on top. That’s why to this day, he scratches and scratches beneath the food he finds. Tate’s lushly painted acrylics capture the animals at their silliest and rooster at his sulkiest. This mostly literary retelling is filled with contemporary clichés and incorporates the motifs and plot structure of the traditional African-American tale. Fun for telling or reading. (Picture book/folktale. 5-8)
