HOW TO HATCH A WRITER

From building sentences to mastering parts of speech, Goldifox and the plucky chickens are ready to write.

In this follow-up to How To Hatch a Reader (2023), the poultry of Hatch Farm have started pecking words into the dirt, and now they’re moving on to full sentences. The curly-haired, blond, pale-skinned child who serves as the book’s guide gathers the chickens together for a story. Then they begin writing sentences of their own that include a capital letter at the start, spaces, and punctuation. Soon, Goldifox—a vulpine interloper who surreptitiously dons a blond wig and purple dress in an attempt to raid the proverbial henhouse—arrives and is conscripted by the youngster into helping the chickens master elements of grammar. Goldifox’s contributions all slyly reveal the fox’s true intentions (“I love chicken,” Goldifox spells out at one point). At last, taking a tumble into the mud while trying to accost the chickens, Goldifox acts out some of the verbs the birds are learning about: flew, squawked, and flopped. The cartoonish illustrations are a suitable match for the story, while the text brims with chicken and egg puns while also hitting the highlights of sentence structure basics. Some of its concepts may be a little advanced for the picture-book crowd, but as an overview it’s solid. Lower elementary teachers looking for visuals to pair with writing concepts will likely find this one valuable.

As playful as it is instructive, most useful to teachers or caregivers.