ACCESS DIGITIZED EDITION
Guide/Reviews Database
FOLKTALES AND NURSERY RHYMES
d'Aulaire, Edgar Parin , d'Aulaire, Ingri

Don't Count Your Chicks

40 pp. | Minnesota | February, 2023 | Trade ISBN 9781517914462 $17.95
Reissue (1943, Doubleday)
(2) K-3 Based on a Scandinavian folktale, this lesser-known d’Aulaires’ picture book, first published in 1943, recalls Aesop’s fable “The Milkmaid and Her Pail.” An old woman walks into town to sell a basketful of eggs laid by her one reliable hen. Along the way, she speculates how she might turn the profits into, first, a few more hens, then a whole henhouse full, and so on until she has become a wealthy lady who turns her nose up at everything--and as she turns her own nose up while she imagines, the basket of eggs on her head crashes to the ground. She laments her lost future for a moment but then heads home grateful­ for all she has already. Not unusually for its time, the book’s pages alternate between full-color art (in what looks like pastels) and black-and-white (in pencil). Both hold viewers’ attention­ with their homey details, appealing farm animals, and apple-cheeked, upbeat protagonist.
Reviewer: Martha V. Parravano | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2023

RELATED 

FOLKTALES AND NURSERY RHYMES

Nine Color Deer
by Duan, Kailin
FOLKTALES AND NURSERY RHYMES

An Illustrated Collection of Nordic Animal Tales
FOLKTALES AND NURSERY RHYMES

The Three Billy Goats Gruff
FOLKTALES AND NURSERY RHYMES

Mother Goose Goes to India
by , Sehgal, Kabir & Sehgal, Surishtha
FOLKTALES AND NURSERY RHYMES

What Are Little Girls Made Of?
by Willis, Jeanne
More

Get connected. Join our global community of more than 200,000 librarians and educators.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

We are currently offering this content for free. Sign up now to activate your personal profile, where you can save articles for future viewing.

ALREADY A SUBSCRIBER?