Chicken Big , the latest picture book by Keith Graves , arrived at our house yesterday and it was a huge hit. My son was super excited to take a bath since I promised him we’d read the book as soon as he was done. It was the quickest bath in our history of bath-taking…

He grabbed the book as soon as his pajamas were on (another record for him) and immediately informed me that it wasn’t so much a book as it was a comic strip. The layout of the back cover and many of the interior pages were set up in boxes with big, fun fonts that made it easy for him to follow along and even read on his own.

He laughed out loud and repeated the phrase, “This is getting ridiculous,” as the characters tried to figure out what Chicken Big actually was (spoiler alert: he really is a chicken).

We love reading time in our house and last night was especially fun since he asked if we could read Chicken Big again. He laughed in all the same places the second time around, although he couldn’t quite figure out how the characters knew they were in a book (you’ll have to see the title pages to understand his inquiry).

As a picture book aficionado, I adored the illustrations, the twist to the Chicken Little tale as well as the layout of the  entire book. Not a single page was wasted!

Keith Graves is the author of many hilarious books for kids, including Frank Was a Monster Who Wanted to Dance . Chicken Big was sent to me through the Chronicle Books’ Gold Review Panel program.