Owen’s Marshmallow Chick (Owen Board Book) by Kevin Henkes

• 01/14/2014
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Owen’s Marshmallow Chick (Owen Board Book)
Kevin Henkes
HarperFestival (2002)
ISBN 9780060010126
Reviewed by Cayden (age 3.5) and Max (age 19 months) Aures and Mom for Reader Views (4/08)

In “Owen’s Marshmallow Chick” the main character Owen is a mouse who loves candy!  On Easter morning he wakes up to a basket full of jelly beans, gumdrops, buttercream eggs, a chocolate bunny and a marshmallow chick.  He proceeds to eat everything in the basket proclaiming each item to be his “favorite” as he is wolfing it down.  When he gets to the marshmallow chick he hesitates and instead of eating it decides to play with it all day instead.  At bedtime he carefully places the chick up on his toy shelf with all of his other favorite things.

Cayden:  “He is jumping up and down because he is so happy he got all of that candy in his Easter basket from the Easter bunny!”

Max:  “Chocolate!”

Cayden:  “He dropped some of his candy on the floor.”

Max:  “Fall!  Fall!”

Cayden:  “Why is he eating everything?  His tummy is going to hurt from all that sugar!”

Cayden:  “He should have eaten some healthy food too and only had one candy from his basket every day.”

Cayden:  “Why is he playing with that chick?  It is candy, not a toy.”

Parent’s comments:
“Owen’s Marshmallow Chick” is a fun Easter board book.  Max made a game out of pointing out the marshmallow chick on each page before we could continue reading the book.  The text is very simple and has a lot of repetition which is perfect for a young child.  The illustrations are very engaging and did a great job at conveying the emotions that Owen was feeling.   This book would be a great surprise to stick in any young child’s Easter basket!