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Mr Chicken Goes to Paris
by Leigh Hobbs

Release Date: 6th Sep 2010
Publisher: Bloomsbury
ISBN: 978 1 4088 0524 4
RRP: £5.99

Average Customer Rating: 
(0.0 based on 0 ratings)

Not the prettiest character, but certainly a memorable one...

Mr Chicken Goes to Paris is not an instantly attractive book, with its scratchy, slightly abstract and peculiarly ‘crazy’-looking illustrations. Mr Chicken himself is an overly large, bug-eyed chicken that looks like it belongs in your nightmares rather than a children’s book, however, children seem to like him. And it doesn’t take long to figure out why.

Think of an all-time great children’s writer and illustrator team: Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake. Then look again at the Hobb’s unorthodox illustrations and subtly grown-up humour. Grumpy Mr Chicken is the antithesis of all those softly, softly children’s books – and children warm to the big, yellow monstrosity for exactly that reason. Once you get past the ‘messiness’ of the illustrations, you can appreciate the brilliantly clever narrative and revel in the pleasantly effective storytelling.

Hobbs does not write down to his audience; rather he embraces them on their level and encourages them to look at the world differently (including Paris). The subtlety of wit is perhaps aimed at an older reader than the size of book implies, and in that way, perhaps Hobbs has missed a trick. There is a gap in the market for a Dahl-esque children’s writer – no one else has attempted to fill his shoes, and maybe, just maybe, Hobbs is up to the job.

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