Amazon.com: Customer reviews: The Trouble with Chickens: A J.J. Tully Mystery

Top positive review

A nifty little mystery great for reading out loud

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 16, 2011

Children's noir might sound crazy but this book from Doreen Cronin and Kevin Cornell is a nifty little mystery great for reading out loud.

To set the mood, I listened to Robert Mitchum's Philip Marlowe from Farewell My Lovely and adapted his gravelly delivery for the voice of J.J. Tully, the retired search and rescue dog. J.J. not only is the story's protagonist but also the laconic narrator through all but two of the 23 chapters.

So, who narrates the other two chapters? Well, that would be Vince the Funnel, the villainous inside dog, described as "a cross between a dachshund and a lamp." For Vince, I initially considered a Peter Lorre impersonation but settled on Orson Welles' Harry Lime from The Third Man.

With the narrative voices locked down, I added one more trick to keep my sons (ages 8 and 6) engaged in the story. We began each chapter with our own film noir soundtrack: da-dum-dum-ta-da-da-dum-dum with a cool finger snap for a beat with a single hi-hat.

We read the book over three nights as the boys' bedtime reading. My sons focused mostly on Cornell's illustrations during the first night. My eldest son rolled his eyes as I led the film noir soundtrack into each new chapter. The noir style drew them in slowly. However, the night ended with a highlight, a silhouette of Vince the Funnel at the end of chapter eight.

I had to hide the book for the second night, so my sons wouldn't read ahead before I got home from work. The eye rolling stopped. I had two enthusiastic finger snappers at the start of each chapter. They were critics, too. I mixed up a couple names only to be corrected by my six-year old, who flipped back to the book cover and named each chick.

My boys woke up and searched the house for the book. They returned from school and searched again. By the time I returned home from work, they met me at the door. Fingers snapping, the third and last night was electric. The boys, sensing a double cross and a cliffhanger for J.J., pushed me through the last six chapters.

I won't spoil the ending but, true to form, this whodunit ends with a (family-friendly) twist.

Rating: Five stars.

BTW: Parents looking for a noir treat of their own would enjoy The Best American Noir of the Century, a 39-story anthology I gave a five-star rating on Amazon in December 2010.

11 people found this helpful

Top critical review

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Heidi Grange

The Trouble with Chickens

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 21, 2011

The strength of this book is the characters. Tully, the former search-and-rescue dog turned detective, narrates the story. His names for the chickens are oddly appropriate (Moosh, the mom, Dirt, and Sugar for the chicks). The point-of-view of the story makes it good for a read-a-loud. And while the villain is not hard to identify, there is lots of fun to be had using different voices to match the illustrations and tone of the story.

Plot wise there were enough twists and turns to keep me reading, but as other reviewers have mentioned the book is a spoof off of old detective shows and as such has more humor than tension. While the book is certainly not for everyone, I think that I will try it with my second or third graders and see if they like it.

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From the United States

A nifty little mystery great for reading out loud

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 16, 2011

Verified Purchase

Children's noir might sound crazy but this book from Doreen Cronin and Kevin Cornell is a nifty little mystery great for reading out loud.

To set the mood, I listened to Robert Mitchum's Philip Marlowe from Farewell My Lovely and adapted his gravelly delivery for the voice of J.J. Tully, the retired search and rescue dog. J.J. not only is the story's protagonist but also the laconic narrator through all but two of the 23 chapters.

So, who narrates the other two chapters? Well, that would be Vince the Funnel, the villainous inside dog, described as "a cross between a dachshund and a lamp." For Vince, I initially considered a Peter Lorre impersonation but settled on Orson Welles' Harry Lime from The Third Man .

With the narrative voices locked down, I added one more trick to keep my sons (ages 8 and 6) engaged in the story. We began each chapter with our own film noir soundtrack: da-dum-dum-ta-da-da-dum-dum with a cool finger snap for a beat with a single hi-hat.

We read the book over three nights as the boys' bedtime reading. My sons focused mostly on Cornell's illustrations during the first night. My eldest son rolled his eyes as I led the film noir soundtrack into each new chapter. The noir style drew them in slowly. However, the night ended with a highlight, a silhouette of Vince the Funnel at the end of chapter eight.

I had to hide the book for the second night, so my sons wouldn't read ahead before I got home from work. The eye rolling stopped. I had two enthusiastic finger snappers at the start of each chapter. They were critics, too. I mixed up a couple names only to be corrected by my six-year old, who flipped back to the book cover and named each chick.

My boys woke up and searched the house for the book. They returned from school and searched again. By the time I returned home from work, they met me at the door. Fingers snapping, the third and last night was electric. The boys, sensing a double cross and a cliffhanger for J.J., pushed me through the last six chapters.

I won't spoil the ending but, true to form, this whodunit ends with a (family-friendly) twist.

Rating: Five stars.

BTW: Parents looking for a noir treat of their own would enjoy The Best American Noir of the Century , a 39-story anthology I gave a five-star rating on Amazon in December 2010.

11 people found this helpful

Helpful

Intrepid Judy

Thumbs Up from a Reluctant Reader

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 6, 2020

Verified Purchase

Completely out of options for 30 minute read aloud sessions during home schooling for my 3rd grade granddaughter, I fished this book out of my planned birthday gifts for her and off we went. She loved this book, wants more from this series (major call-out to the clever author and illustrator), and read aloud much more than her 30 min/day to learn the cliff hanger outcome. The noir mystery tone and hilarious commentary from the main character and the cleverly nicknamed hen and chicks kept her in hysterics. This is a funny, clever, and (at least to elementary age children) suspenseful book I highly recommend. A good listen for grandparents too.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Zeldie Stuart

excellent "first" chapter book f

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 9, 2011

Verified Purchase

Tully has written an amusing, clever book to read aloud to young children. My grandchildren, ages 4 and 5.5 are ready for "chapter books" which are so hard to find. At this age they still enjoy some pictures and this book has just the right amount. Many chapter books geared for this age are just bad and boring for a parent or grandparent to read. The Trouble with Chickens is entertaining for adults and for young children. It treats the young reader as a sophisticated knowledgeable young person. I read a chapter or 2 at night to the grandchildren and they cannot wait till the following night. I read the entire book first and was totally entertained. The book is about a retired Great Dane who worked as a rescue dog but now is relaxing out in the country. A chicken and her 2 chicks come for help and the story rollicks along. They all have very human voices and conerns which everyone, child, mom, dad, grandparents, can appreciate and enjoy. Wish there were more books like this out there. Hopefully JJ Tully will write more.

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Reviewer

Our Reading Spark! These books hold a special place in our house.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 27, 2015

Verified Purchase

We are completely in love with Doreen Cronin books! We started with The Chicken Squad... and it was our spark. Our upcoming 2nd grader finally fell in love with reading, thanks to these adorable and mischievous chickens! In LOVE - find him under the covers with a booklight giggling about chickens - in love.

We're anxiously awaiting the next Chicken Squad book, and in the meantime have started on the prequel JJ Tully Mysteries. Absolutely adorable, and just as enjoyable for parents as for the kids. Our son is working his way through the 2nd Chicken Squad independently, and we supplement by reading the JJ Tully books to him, which are a just a bit more advanced (i.e. less pictures, slightly smaller text than Chicken Squad, but still lots of great illustrations, and nice manageable chapter sizes).

8 people found this helpful

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Sheila Gallagher

I loved it!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 9, 2016

Verified Purchase

JJ Tully, a retired search-and-rescue dog, is called on by a mother chicken who wants him to find her missing chicks. He sets out to train her remaining chicks on search and rescue skills but he must become move involved than he wanted to find those chicks as well.

I loved this story! JJ talks like a 1940's film noir gumshoe. The villain, Vincent the Funnel (is that not a great nickname?), talks like a 1930's gangster. The story is hilarious. Mama chicken and her chicks are precious. It's not just the chicks that learn. I look forward to more in this series.

One person found this helpful

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LakeDesert

Read with my 9 y.o.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 18, 2020

Verified Purchase

It was a fairly easy read with enough new words to help with vocabulary.. The narration changes from JJ to Vince was a little rough. Would still recommend.

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Kindle Customer

Great Children’s Book

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 5, 2020

Verified Purchase

During quarantine distance learning my son’s library teacher started reading this book. He really enjoyed hearing the story and wanted a copy of his own! We read this book together the day we received the book. Perfect content and great book for my 7 year old.

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Wendy

Great read aloud book for young children

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 30, 2020

Verified Purchase

The kids loved hearing this story. Especially since they have chickens!

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Michele Marshall

One of the best books I have ever read!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 27, 2020

Verified Purchase

Decided this afternoon to read the book I had gotten for my grandson. It was great. You can hear the 1940's film noir narrator as you read. Love everything about the book including the illustrations. I am going to recommend to all my friends. A great read.

Helpful

Amazon Customer

Cute story

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 21, 2021

Verified Purchase

This is such a cute story. I write children's stories, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading this one.

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