by Elka Weber
illustrated by Elisa Kleven
Inspired by a story from the Talmud, One Little Chicken is the tale of a chicken Leora finds. She wants to keep it, but her parents know it belongs to someone else. They take care of it until the owner is found, and they do so with humor and good stewardship.
We read this book as part of our study of honesty, but it exemplified many virtues. Leora's family returns much more than one chicken to the original owner, showing how we should strive to improve that which is in our care as well as that which is our own.
This book also probably has my favorite Elisa Kleven illustrations. In other books, they can sometimes seem overwhelming with activity, but these are colorful and often set off by lots of white space to soothe my eyes. (My children always seem to love the Kleven illustrations. I love how her books often invite children, without explicit words, to create art with whatever they have lying around. We recently read The Paper Princess and First Daughter rushed immediately to the art supplies to create an entire paper doll world.)
And it has chickens! What more could you want?
