Interrupting Chicken & The Elephant of Surprise

2018, Candlewick Press

"Well, Chicken," said Papa, "did you have a good day at school?"

"Yes, Papa! And today my teacher told us every story has an elephant of surprise. So let's read a story, and we'll find the elephant."

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David Ezra Stein

Stein's art career has spanned interior and set design, cartoonist for the New Yorker, window display artist and puppet builder. His first book, Cowboy Ned & Andy, was published in 2006. Since then he has illustrated more than twenty children's books and earned both a Caldecott Honor and the Ezra Jack Keats Award.

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Book Synopsis

Little Chicken learned that every story has an elephant of surprise or is it an element of surprise?  Reading stories with Papa is surprisingly filled with elephants... The Ugly Duckling, Rapunzel, and The Little Mermaid will never be the same.

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Picture book, 40 pages. Little Chicken needs help with her homework -- finding the elephant of surprise in each story!

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Learning Options

Family Read Aloud Time
This is a wonderful companion book to Stein's first book, Interrupting Chicken, and will lead to lots of laughs.  Your child may even want to create her own elephants of surprise in other read alouds!

Classroom Resource
Teaching story structure to primary students can be a challenge, especially if they misunderstand the terms. Little Chicken hears elephant instead of element, but she still manages to grasp the concept! This is an excellent resource to read when teaching story structure - the giggles will help the concepts to stick.

Learning at Home
Stein's Interrupting Chicken series is a wonderfully humorous way to reinforce elements of story structure. Waterford offers 6 Strategies for Teaching Story Structure in Your Classroom which is easily adapted for use at home. And We Are Teachers has put together Our Favorite Videos for Teaching Story Elements.

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