Review of Snake and Lizard by Joy Cowley

Snake and Lizard by Joy Cowley. Illustrated by Gavin Bishop. Kane/Miller, 2008.

Gr. 1 – 4

Each chapter in this slim book by the author of the wonderful Chicken Feathers is a little story about two close, if somewhat mismatched, friends. Their first meeting is rather antagonistic – Snake has stretched herself rather obliviously across a path in order to sun herself, which incenses Lizard no end. This episode ends well, with Snake inviting Lizard to sun himself next to her and the two chatting up a storm, but the initial conflict sets the stage for many more to come. These two reptiles simply cannot avoid irritating each other.

In my favorite story “The Picnic,” which reminded me very much of mealtimes with certain beloved friends and relations of mine, Snake is grossed out by Lizard’s food and table manners – he gobbles his moths, fried flies, and caterpillars with such gusto that he ends up with fly legs all over his chin. Lizard in turn is horrified when Snake slithers up to a chicken’s nest and happily swallows nine eggs whole. Lizard gasps, “Look at you! I can see the shapes of the eggs inside your skin! Oh! Oh! That really is the most horrible sight!” After he calms down a bit, Lizard muses that perhaps in the future, the two friends should eat with their backs to each other. “Snake didn’t reply. She was fast asleep, curled up under a cactus like a string of striped beads.”

The illustration that accompanies that last line of the story shows the white, black, and orangey-red Snake coiled peacefully on the ground, each of the nine eggs visible as a lump along her body. Each illustration is small, charming, and colored with warm desert hues of brown, blue, orange, and green that look wonderful against the creamy paper. The endpapers depict many desert denizens – insects, a rabbit, a tortoise, various birds – against a warm yellow background.

Readers who love George and Martha, Frog and Toad, and other famous friends will move easily from those easy readers to this stepping-stone chapter book. Snake and Lizard’s friendship illustrates that it is not necessary to always agree – but friends should know how to disagree with kindness. Cowley’s dedication in the front of the book says it all: “To dear Terry who knows that friendship is not made out of sameness but the accommodation of differences.”

This is a funny, cozy book for reading alone or sharing with a friend (or a classroom of friends).

Review of Chicken Feathers by Joy Cowley

We had a hen named Samantha who used to come sit in my lap and whose fondness for standing under the sprinklers was her eventual downfall (hens and water do not mix well; she caught a fatal cold). There was Henrietta, a plucky red hen with lethal-looking spurs and a bossy personality. Kaya and Griffin used to try to roost on my shoulders when they were gawky tweeners. There have been plenty of other hens, all rather sweet and dim-witted – as chicks they pecked at their own toes, mistaking them for worms, and many of them don’t have the sense to get out of the rain. Granted, it doesn’t rain much here, but still.

Not one hen has ever spoken to me, and so I can only assume that not one had the brains, wit, and sheer chutzpah of Semolina, the aged and crotchety heroine of Chicken Feathers by Joy Cowley (Philomel, 2008). She only talks to Josh, her adopted chick of a human boy, and it’s a good thing she does, because he needs a confidante – his mom is in the hospital due to a risky pregnancy, his cranky, hen-scorning grandma has moved in to cook and clean, and his old friend and new crush Annalee has acquired a figure and a boyfriend.

No one believes that Semolina actually talks to Josh, which makes for a lonely and confusing summer. But Josh and Semolina manage to save the inhabitants of coop #3 from a fox – who is then hell-bent on revenge.

This is a weirdly realistic novel; in fact, I hesitate to call it a fantasy, despite the talking chicken. It’s clear to me that she does talk, because there is no ambiguity about the things she tells him and because at the very end she talks to everyone, even the “biggies.” Now, we never do learn their reaction to this talking hen, so maybe she didn’t really talk – but I refuse to buy that. She’s a talking hen, darn it, and that’s all there is to it. And she is stubborn, cantankerous, and a worrywart with a passion for home-brew (just like Josh’s grandma, he realizes at one point). The language is simple, with just a bit of down-home folksiness. The characters are drawn with a spare but affectionate brush, which matches their own uncomplicated natures.

This is a charmer of a story, with humorous drawings to go with it (Semolina is one bedraggled but dignified hen). Recommended for everyone – a great read-aloud for ages 4 and up, and for readers grades 2 – 4.