I have never read Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, but I've always meant to. However, luckily for me, some of his stories are adapted and can be found in the juvenile section of my local library. This story, Chanticleer and the Fox, is one such adapted adapted story and is illustrated by Barbara Cooney.

The story is about a rooster, named Chanticleer, who lives on the modest farm of a widow and her daughters. Chanticleer is a beautiful bird and he struts around among 7 hens. One day he dreams that his coop is in danger but when he talks with one of the hens his fears go away. However his dream was a precognition of the danger that would be coming. A fox was laying in wait. One day the fox says to Chanticleer that he has a beautiful voice and wishes for the rooster to sing to him. Chanticleer stands tall, stretches his neck and closes to eyes to sing when the fox grabs him by the neck and carries him off to his den. This causes a big commotion, the cows, the sheep, the pigs, all the hens, the daughters and the widow run after the fox. Even the geese and the bees get upset. As he is being carried off Chanticleer speaks to the fox begging to be let go and when the fox opens his mouth and responds Chanticleer breaks free of his grip and flies up in a tree. The rooster tells the fox that he will never again be tricked by flattery and the fox responds that he should not have been so vain to let it ever happen. However the fox has lost and he goes back in the forest and Chanticleer returns happily to his home to end the story.

I like this tale, because it is a fable. There are animals in it who speak and act like humans. And there is a moral to the story that is made very clear at the end. But it does have a happy ending, so the story itself is positive all around.

The illustrations won this book the Caldecott Medal in 1959 and it is not hard to see why. There is a lot of attention to detail seen in every page. Chanticleer is indeed a beautiful specimen. His tail feathers flow behind him as he walks and Cooney does an excellent job of showing his splendor. The illustrations are done only in a few colors though: red, orange, blue, green, and yellow. And there are only one shade of each. Most illustrations use all the colors but some pictures have only one color in addition to black. However, all of them are great and show the scenes well. And the little things, like cows on a hillside in the background when the widow and daughters run off to chase the fox, make the difference and show the effort put into the illustrations.

Each page has a large illustration and 2-18 lines of text. The cover recommends this book for children ages 4-8, but I think a 4 or 5 or even a 6 year old would have a lot of trouble reading this on their own. I'd probably recommend it to ages 7-9 as there is a lot of text, which help bring the story to life better, but also might frustrate a child learning to read with many difficult words like azure, debonair, and gaiety.

Overall I recommend this book with its good story and well done illustrations. Learning about medieval life through the pictures and story of this text are something any child can benefit from. History is important even if it takes fiction to help share it with a child. Check out this beautifully done book.

Recommended: Yes