Title: Rooster Can't Cock-a-Doodle-Doo
Author: Karen Rostker-Gruber
Illustrator: Paul Ratz de Tagyos
Age Range: 2-5
This book completely cracked me up. As I was reading it to my 4 year old daughter, my 2 year old son heard the funny animal sounds I was making and crawled into my lap and wiggled his butt until he was comfortable. He was pointing at all the animals and laughing as I read the story with the different animal sounds. It is udder-ly charming and pretty funny to boot.
In the story, Rooster wakes up with a sore throat and is unable to perform his duties to wake up the entire farm. Realizing that he HAS to do something to help get the farm up, he goes from animal group to animal group, waking them up with a cough and whispering for some help. Each animal group then sympathizes with Rooster, but also realize that if he can't do his job the farm is in trouble. Consequently they all begin walking through the farm waking up hens, cows, sheep and pigs all in order to keep the farm going. The final person they have to wake up is Farmer Ted and their approach is funny.
I really liked the underlying message of the book. Everyone has a responsibility and if someone doesn't fulfill it, the rest of the people relying on that person can't do their jobs either. It was refreshing to read that when so many kids (including mine) say, "It's not my fault and I don't care." Rooster is concerned about not being able to fulfill his duties and the rest of the animals support him and try and help him find a way to do his job. The end has a funny twist where the animals are concerned about the Farmer being able to do his job so they all chip in to help.
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