A delightful tale, for sure!

What happens when one silly chicken loses a feather and giggles “The more I pluck myself, the more gorgeous I look”?

Not much, except that another chicken hears and tells her best friend.

And Momma Owl hears the chicken friends discussing it and rushes off to tell the nice owl next door.

Who then shouts the news to the pigeon house below.

The story spreads and spreads until the coop where the silly chicken lives hears the dreadful story. Apparently five chickens had all plucked themselves bare trying to prove that they were pining away for the rooster. Then they had pecked each other to death!

Of course the story was true–everyone said so, for sure.

The original silly chicken was an upstanding citizen and roundly renounced the goings on, not realizing that she was the chicken who had started the whole rumor.

Hans Christian Andersen’s For sure! For sure! translated by Mus White and illustrated by Stefan Czernecki is a timeless tale about gossip and how rumours spread. I had never heard this particular tale of Andersen’s and was delighted to discover it in my trek through the children’s section of my local library.

The story was told just as stories for children should be told: using straightforward language without overly simplifying sentence structure. The story never once use the word gossip or rumors–but it makes its point clear nonetheless. Many an author could take a note from Andersen’s book and show instead of telling.

The bright, simple illustrations perfectly complemented the text, indicating the delight the many birds were taking in sharing their news with yet another person.

This picture book has definitely got my thumbs up! For sure!