Disclosure: I received a copy of this book for review. Opinions shared are mine.

Looking back, there have been a lot of entertaining duos in my life. Bert & Ernie, Frog & Toad, Laverne & Shirley…the list goes on and on. Cranky Chicken and his happy worm sidekick are the newest dynamic pair to the book world.

Cranky Chicken is impossible to dislike. He’s funny without meaning to be, and kids will relate to his grumpiness. That cranky unibrow is adorable. Likewise, it’s easy to connect to the delightful little Worm. He’s cheerful and upbeat about life, and his determination to befriend Cranky Chicken warms the heart.

This book immediately brought to mind multitudes of students who dislike reading but love sarcastic humor. The beauty of Cranky Chicken is the graphic novel format. With large panels and consistently well-spaced text, this might appeal to readers who struggle with dyslexia. I don’t think it would work well as a read-aloud for a class because the illustrations are so tied to the dialogue. However, it would be great for a paired reading.

Sometimes as I read the scenes, I had a hard time differentiating the speaker from the quote. Without warning the text bubble would change from white to yellow. It would be easier to distinguish the speaker if one had white and one had yellow. This might be a hangup for younger readers.

About the Book:

Narwhal and Jelly meet The Bad Guys in CRANKY CHICKEN (On Sale 9/7/21) by critically acclaimed author-illustrator Katherine Battersby, an effortlessly hilarious, brightly-illustrated graphic novel chapter book about what happens when a very cranky chicken is befriended by a very cheerful worm.

Cranky Chicken is, well, cranky. With one cranky eyebrow, cranky eyes, and even cranky, scratchy feet. But then one day, Cranky meets a very friendly worm named Speedy who wants nothing more than to be friends. Young readers will love seeing the mismatched friendship grow over the course of three charming and laugh-out-loud short adventures.