Help Wanted: One Rooster

4.3

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Author(s)

Julie Falatko

Publisher

Viking Children's Books

Genre(s)

Age Range

Release Date

June 18, 2024

ISBN

978-0451476838

Buy This Book

A farm.

Bucolic beauty, barns, and...sleepy animals everywhere?

This farm needs a rooster, and Cow is determined to find the perfect candidate.

One rooster, who wakes up first thing in the morning, with a resounding cock-a-doodle-do—is that too much to ask?

YES!

This tale of a frenzied farm and the beleaguered cow trying to keep it all together packs more than laughs. As each enthusiastic candidate learns: roostering isn’t what you are, but what you do. And there’s room for everyone.

As long as they wake up early—er, I mean brew strong coffee—or is it press the big button?—oh never mind. All are welcome!

Editor review

1 review

The Right Candidate for the Job

August 08, 2024

Overall rating

4.3

Plot

4.0

Characters

4.0

Writing Style

5.0

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

4.0

Sheep and Cow are very invested in their busy, hardworking farm, but latelyl things have not been optimal; their rooster has been sleeping in, so all of the other animals are not waking up on time and getting work done. Cow sets off to find a new rooster, and interviews some interesting candidates. There is a rooster who seems suitable, but who would rather ring a bell than cock-a-doodle-doo. A chicken applies and suggests that she will wake the farm with the smell of fresh brewed coffee. A small bird wants the job, mainly so he can push a button and wake everyone, but there is no button! Finally, an insensible blob applies, but since it can barely be understood, is glossed over. It turns out that the rooster has turned the farm into a successful rock moosic venue, and that's why he hasn't been getting up until 2 p.m. A compromise is finally made; the four applicants will be hired, but it is their job to rouse the rooster, assure his sunrise performance, and then let him get back to sleep!

Good Points

I love Falatko's Two Dogs in a Trench Coat middle grade series, and have to say that I am not the most enormous fans of picture books. They're often just silly and twee, and when my own children were small, I was often guilty of rearranging the stories to make them more interesting to ME. Falatko does this for discerning adults who want to be able to chuckle at books that they have to read night after night, and I appreciate that. There are plenty of highfalutin' vocab words, too, which is excellent; my daughter was routinely using the word "ostensibly" by the time she was four!

Young readers will find plenty of out and out goofiness in the story, but it's also a good book to introduce conversations about applying for jobs! How could Cow have advertised the job more effectively? What qualifications would you want in a rooster? I loved how the help Wanted sign was updated every day a candidate was deemed unworthy!

The illustrations go well with the text, and have plenty of bright colors and exuberant details in the background. I love Cow's topknot, and in her overalls, she looks a little bit like my paternal grandmother! Stegmaier successfully anthropomorphizes the animals so that I really believed they could be running the farm. The rooster's denim jacket is inspired!

Even as the world gets further away from our agrarian past, books set on farms hold their appeal. While there are plenty of versions of The Little Red Hen or Old McDonald's Farm to fill the need for traditional information about farms, there need to be books for those of us who want a little snarky along with the traditional red barn. Herd Help Wanted: One Rooster into a pen with Donaldson's A Squash and a Squeeze, Cronin and Lewin's Click Clack Moo Cows That Type, Schertle and McElmurry's Little Blue Truck, or Shaw's Sheep in a Jeep series, which was always a massive hit in my house.