The Chicken Squad comprised of Dirt, Poppy, Sweetie and Sugar, and their reliable old pal, J.J., a retired dog detective, are loaded up into the old green station wagon with Barbara for a trip out to the farm where all the chicken relatives live. Moosh, their mother, is so excited. When the car pulls up, the chickens start to unload, except for Sugar who isn't so sure about the whole thing.
A whistle blows and a Moosh-look alike authoritatively gathers all the chickens into a receiving line just as they had practiced so they can all meet each other. The line of chicken relatives begins to pass by and one by one the chicken cousins introduce themselves: Betsy, Bibi, Bichon, Biden... and on and on they go ...all 85 of them...and all having a first name that begins with the letter B.
Sugar has had enough. She heads back to the car where the jelly bean bag is and starts to sweeten things up a little bit. That's when it happens. That's when the large, shadowy figure appears with a long gray thread hanging out of its mouth. Sugar rapidly becomes Bugar...which quickly shifts to ...yes, Booger. The large shadowy figure introduces him/herself as Befrizzle...nobody's buying that.
This is utterly hilarious. Sugar..I mean Bugar... can't get anyone to believe her. She is accused of eating all the jelly beans. The wit keeps coming and the story just devolves into a laugh-out-loud series of ridiculous and ever-so-smart great lines. Thank goodness Doreen Cronin decided to write for children...she could be the brains behind SNL.
115 pages 978-1481450492 Ages 7-10
Recommended by: Barb Langridge, abookandahug.com ******* There’s a big, SHADOWY, mystery lurking about on what was supposed to be a nice chicken-family vacation to a farm. Sugar is certain that she is being watched, and when Poppy’s beloved shoe (the shoe that keeps her safe and snug) goes missing, Sugar is sure that this shadow is the culprit. But how does the Chicken Squad tackle a shadow? And do it without ruining the family reunion…which includes meeting eighty-five cousins whose names all begin with the letter B, a lesson on figuring out perimeters (no, Sugar, the perimeter of a car is not one mile), and deciding how many bags of jellybeans one should pack for a road trip?--from the publisher