Party Animals

Party Animals is a three-part sequel to Cranky Chicken. Within each section of the story, there is a new reason for Cranky Chicken’s being cranky and various attempts by Speedy, a worm, to cheer up his unpleasant friend. The “Cranky Chicken” books are comparable to Jim Davis’ “Garfield” series due to the quirky humour, personified characters, and comic-style dialogue as text.

In this second book of the “Cranky Chicken” series, Katherine Battersby makes a direct reference to her first book and includes an illustration of the book cover. Battersby ties this promotional plug into the story in a humorous way. This is a clever way to inform the audience that there is another similar book in this series.

Battersby is also the illustrator of Party Animals. Each page is filled with all sorts of mesmerizing colours, speech bubbles, and details of different shapes and sizes. Young readers will also be captivated by the exaggerated expressions of the characters which add humour to the story.

Overall, while the book is longer than most other children’s books for the intended age group, it is one that any reader could easily open to any page and, from it, get a good laugh. Party Animals could be enjoyed by reading solely the pictures or, of course, with the enhancement of the humorous dialogue and onomatopoeia included.

Party Animals is the sort of book that will foster a genuine love of reading in children because it is silly, simple, and fun.