Little Chick’s Story

1978

by Mary DeBall Kwitz

illustrated by Cyndy Szekeres

Published by Harper & Row

I was drawn to Little Chick’s Story by the simple soft blue and brown color palette. I love the pencil lines of Cyndy Szekeres through the wash of pale colors and how in places she uses no color at all, only the pencil. It’s beautiful how well the simplicity of the two colors work in Little Chick’s Story.

My favorite part of the story itself is that this is An Early I CAN READ Book, but Mary DeBall Kwitz still lets children read and learn from the rich detail in her text.

“She laid one egg in the meadow for the ring-tailed raccoon.

And she hid one egg in the violets for the Easter rabbit.”

I love her word choice, especially violets. She could have called them flowers, but she chose to teach children about a specific flower. Maybe there’s meaning in that for the author.

This book made me think of all the I Can Read books my children have checked out and read from the library and the ones we’ve bought and read together at home. It really is incredible to see your child grow and learn to make sense of letters and the sounds they make and then learn to put it all together and read all by themselves.

I wondered about the series of books and when it possibly started. I found out the first I Can Read book published was Little Bear in 1957, by Else Holmelund and illustrated Maurice Sendak.

You can read the history of how the I Can Read series began HERE.

What’s your favorite I Can Read book?