Chicken In The Kitchen By Nnedi Okorafor

This story really tickled my daughter. She really liked it and found the whole concept of a chicken in a kitchen hilarious! It's well written, funny and the illustrations are brilliant. There is a particularly cute and expressive cat on each page which caused lots of giggles. What I like about it is it is about a culture and celebration that is so very different to what we normally see in books but that isn't the main focus of the story. My daughter just took it as a funny story about a chicken and a wood spirit and through this funny story learnt more about a different culture and celebration.

We loved reading about something new in this book. We'd never heard of a yam festival or a wood wit so this story prompted lots of discussion and learning for us. The kids thought it was hilarious to speak in chickenese

This book is full of beautiful colours and I love a story that brings a bit of diversity and culture to our shelves so it's been a hit all round. Off the back of reading it I created our very own chicken for when they got in from school one day and they used a nin as Anyaugo for lots of bookish play. Lots of fun

An interesting book with beautiful images. It was quite funny but also a wonderful look at another culture. Be aware there is talk of spirits so may not be suitable for all.

The story follows a young girl called Anyaugo. She wakes up one night after hearing some strange noises from the kitchen. What she discovered is not all as it seems at first. The story ends with Anyaugo at a cultural festival, a yam festival. We'd never heard of this before, it promoted us to do some research about it.

My 7 year old and I really enjoyed this book, anything that features animals is right up his street. He loved the giant chicken and was fascinated by the Wood Wit which essentially is a wise being that appears in different forms of wood and offers wisdom when it's needed.

The illustrations were also brilliant and the colours and tones changed throughout the book which went really well with the different points and moods in the story

I love learning and teaching my children about other cultures and their festivals so this book gave that to us. My 5yo was very curious about what yam was so we furthered on our learning by doing a little Google and as we have yam in my home country, I was able to share with him how we'd use it and the characteristics of the plant.

The first half of the story was lighthearted and easy to understand for my 5yo and 3yo but as it then spoke about spirits and ancestors, I had to further explain what it meant as my children found it a little spooky. I'm glad the wood wit spirit was illustrated in a fun, kind way because my 5yo's imagination can really run wild.

All in all, a beautifully illustrated book sharing about a different culture to us!