I Bought a Baby Chicken

A pigtailed girl buys a cute yellow chick at the general store and triggers a poultry-buying spree, in arithmetic progression, by nine members of her family: "My cousin hollered 'Gimme some!' and carried five away./ His sister got six white ones 'cause she had to have her way." Ultimately, "fifty or more" (actually, 55) chicks take up residence throughout the heroine's house, leading her to observe, "I guess my family's lucky that I didn't want a cow!" One quibble: the numerals and addition that drive the text don't get any visual play. This country tale is chipper and sunny from beginning to end, thanks to Halls's (Dino-Trekking) rhymes with the meter of a square-dance caller, and the gently skewed perspective of Brooks's (The Always Moon) cartooning.