“What a pretty chicken I am!” says Mrs. Chicken as she’s bathing in a puddle one morning. The puddle is too small for her to see her wings, so she heads for the river to admire them. Mrs. Chicken doesn’t know that Crocodile is waiting just beneath the surface to snap her up—and snap her up she does. “Bok!” Crocodile drags the alarmed Mrs. Chicken back to her lair to eat her. But Mrs. Chicken knows how to keep her head in a crisis, and she enacts a drawn-out plan to convince Crocodile they are really sisters, eventually achieving a masterful escape. This delightful, humorous tale comes from the Dan people of Liberia and was told to co-author Won-Ldy Paye by his grandmother when he was growing up. Julie Paschkis’s wonderful stylized illustrations are set against bright white when Mrs. Chicken is in her own element on land and bold black when she’s in Crocodile’s deep dark lair. In each instance her choice gives the characters’ vibrant visual presence on the page. Honor Book, 2004 Charlotte Zolotow Award (Ages 4–7)

Mrs. Chicken has to think fast to outwit hungry Crocodile, who wants to eat her for dinner.

One morning Mrs. Chicken took her bath in a puddle.
"Cluck, cluck," she said proudly. "What a pretty chicken I am!"

Mrs. Chicken can't see her wings in the puddle, so she walks down to the river where she can admire all of herself. She doesn't know that Crocodile is there, waiting for dinner—and a tasty chicken would do nicely! To save herself, Mrs. Chicken tells Crocodile that they are sisters.
But how can a speckled chicken and a green-skinned crocodile be related? Mrs. Chicken had better prove that they are, and fast, because Crocodile is getting hungrier . . .

The authors and illustrator of Head, Body, Legs join together to create another lively retelling of a popular African folktale.

Mrs. Chicken and the Hungry Crocodile is a 2004 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.