Chicken Licken -A Wickedly Funny Flap Book
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Cover Story
This issue's cover is a photograph of Anne Frank whose diary is discussed by Michael Rosen fifty years after its first publication. Following the arrest of the Frank family and their companions, the secret annex in Amsterdam where they had been in hiding was locked up and everybody forbidden to enter it, since Jewish possessions became Nazi property and were carted away. Before this happened, the young woman, Miep Gies, who had provided those in hiding with food and who had a second key to the annex, risked herself once more by entering it. Miep retrieved Anne's diary from the devastation together with the Frank family photograph album.
Thanks to Penguin Children's Books for help in reproducing this cover.
Chicken Licken -A Wickedly Funny Flap Book
Universal delight greeted this book -every age group from Nursery through to top Infants were captivated by the story, the absurdity, the brilliant use of flaps, the sense of stalking danger, the clever use of language, the witty illustrations and ... the 'happy ending'. The (more than possibly) pedantic teacher in me would only take issue with this last element; as custodians and 'handers on' of our heritage I feel that we should share and enjoy this appealing picture book BUT present alongside it, the traditional version, with its more realistic ending which has Chicken Licken gobbled up by the fox. Fables and traditional stories such as this fulfil an important function in that they signal early vital messages of caution, of thinking before we act. These messages are essential to our society, to individual happiness and even survival.