Wings: A Tale of Two Chickens - Hardcover

James Marshall (19421992) created dozens of exuberant and captivating books for children, including The Stupids, Miss Nelson Is Missing!, and the ever-popular George and Martha books. Before creating his canon of classic, hilarious children’s books, James Marshall played the viola, studied French, and received a master’s degree from Trinity College. He also doodled. It was the doodles, and the unforgettable characters that emerged from them, that led him to his life’s work as one of the finest creators of children’s books of the twentieth century. In 2007, James Marshall was posthumously awarded the Laura Ingalls Wilder medal for his lasting contribution to literature for children.

Kindergarten-Grade 2 This is typical Marshall: a series of minor crises resolved in outlandishly humorous ways, ways that savvy young children can anticipate and revel in the happy second-guessing. Here a gluttonous dumb cluck is led astray by the wily fox, only to be rescued by her intelligent friend. Marshall's boldly simple watercolors are used to expressive advantage in depicting chickens as bulky tea-cosies and a hot-air balloon (a key apparatus in this farcical melodrama) of similar shape. The bit of subtlety in the story comes by way of a chicken crossing road-marker, a bear preacher who is aggressive in showing his parishioners how to "help the needy" and a chicken costume only a vacuous hen would fall for. The text is just enough to add texture to this smoothie of visual slapstick. Kenneth Marantz, Art Education Department, Ohio State University, Columbus
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