Agatha Parrot and the Thirteenth Chicken

April 15, 2017
Agatha Parrot is back for another silly, almost plausible adventure.When the heated box intended to house 13 new chicks at the Odd Street School breaks, Agatha, Martha, Ivy, and Bianca are each given a covered shoe box with chicks inside for them to babysit overnight. When Agatha gets home, her little sister accidentally releases her chicks. Back at school, when the girls get together to let the chicks play soccer, they discover that there are only 12. Agatha's convinced she's lost the 13th chicken and spends a scary, mayhem-filled time worrying, going through all sorts of troubles trying to find the missing baby. Could he, for instance, be the blob behind the new wallpaper? "PANIC PANIC!" Agatha's breezy first-person voice is nothing short of exuberant, sometimes slightly tinged with just a tiny bit of good-humored sarcasm that rings very true, and each of her friends has enough different traits to come across as an individual, though the lack of racial markers will lead readers to believe that they are probably as white as Agatha. Hargis' black-and-white illustrations are liberally sprinkled through pages that feature plenty of white space and just a couple of paragraphs of easy, inviting text. Two illustrations placed just before the story begins provide helpful background information for readers new to the series. An enthusiastic romp with a friendly grade schooler, just right for those newly transitioning to chapter books. (Fiction. 6-9)

COPYRIGHT(2017) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

June 1, 2017

Gr 1-3-In this latest zany adventure in the UK-imported "Agatha Parrot" series, Agatha and her friends are taking care of the school's newly hatched chicks overnight. Four friends and 13 chicks mean that they all take home three and one gets the bonus chick, named Random. After school, the girls meet up for a chick soccer match and realize that one of the chicks is missing. High jinks ensue as the girls try to figure out who lost Random and work to find him before the big chicken assembly at school the next day. The fast-paced, high-energy story is enhanced by black-and-white cartoonlike illustrations. VERDICT A hit for fans of Sara Pennypacker's "Clementine" and Annie Barrows's "Ivy and Bean" books.-Sarah Polace, Cuyahoga Public Library System, OH

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.