Two-Headed Chicken: Beak to the Future

 
3.5 (2)
 
0.0 (0)
1514 0
Two-Headed Chicken: Beak to the Future
Publisher
Age Range
8+
Release Date
September 12, 2023
ISBN
978-1536223224
Buy This Book
      
The two-headed chicken is back, with twice the adventure, twice the jokes, and a lot more heads (wait, did they just accidentally turn into a double-headed space snake?). Having lost the Astrocap™ somewhere in the multiverse, our intrepid hero dons the Timecap™ to scour the timestream, which looks a lot like broccoli, in search of it. But danger and drama await with every time-hopping POOZB! of the Timecap™, including hungry dinosaurs, fierce werewolves, poet Emily Dickinson, a fish with a mustache who wants to talk about feelings, and even the return of the chicken’s archenemy, Kernel Antlers, the shape-shifting moose! With lively art and quirky nods to history and literature, readers will be swept along for oodles of zany escapades—and brought into the book itself through games, puzzles, drawing activities, and even as a vital character. Tom Angleberger’s absurdist humor shines on every page of this nonstop ride.

Editor reviews

2 reviews
Mayhen through time
Overall rating
 
3.5
Plot
 
3.0
Characters
 
3.0
Writing Style
 
4.0
Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)
 
4.0
What worked:
The book will appeal to readers who love the absurd. The two-headed chicken has an Astrocap that allows it/them to travel back and forth through time. That’s exactly what happens throughout the whole book. Illustrations of the timestream happen to look like a giant broccoli but that’s just a coincidence. The impossible is possible in the timestream as the chicken visits times in history that might/or might not have happened. It encounters some famous personalities like George Washington but also shrinks to microscopic size during prehistoric times. There’s even a scene where it visits the Garden of Eden. Dinosaurs and moose (the green kind) are recurring characters as they appear in various scenes.
The story includes random pages that share different topics that may or may not be related to the plot. One section shares the tale of Friedrich Bangerter, who is the first time-traveler, and presents his three laws to avoid “evolutionary mayhem”. Another page assigns a US History Test and the book ends with Jimmy’s fun quiz. Many of the questions are multiple choice but they all allow readers to consider their own silly answers.
This graphic novel blends colorful illustrations with a good deal of narrative to present the strange story. The pictures immediately display changes as the two-headed chicken transforms into a two-headed television, dinosaur, penguin, and alligator, to name a few. These transformations are good indicators that history is messed up. “Humorous” knock-knock jokes are wielded like weapons by the chicken and they’re sure to make readers groan. The author pokes fun at himself and readers in the dialogue to add more levity to the story. Readers should be prepared to expect the unexpected as the author lets his imagination go free.
What didn’t work as well:
The overall book doesn’t have a compelling plot. About every five pages, the chicken disrupts a moment in history and then must travel to a different time to try to set things right. On the other hand, the brief episodes may appeal to young readers since it won’t take long to finish the chapters and the whole book.
The final verdict:
This style of writing can be expected from the author of the Origami Yoda stories so this book will appeal to lovers of his zany scenarios. I can easily recommend the book to those with a high tolerance for the absurd.
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The Butterfly Effect in Action
Overall rating
 
3.5
Plot
 
3.0
Characters
 
3.0
Writing Style
 
4.0
Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)
 
4.0
The Two-Headed Chicken is back, and ready to travel in time. Using the AstroCap, they travel back into the Timestream (also referred to as "Tammy") to visit prehistory. They have been warned about the Butterfly Effect, but tell a knock knock joke when they travel back in time, therefore changing the world. They are now a duckter cuckoo, and spend a great deal of time trying to change the world and get back to the way they were. The AstroCap's 45 second charging time makes for some narrow escapes as they encounter some of their old nemeses, including Kernel Antler (who looks like a crocodile). They also get stuck in a time loop (or do they?), meet Emily Dickinson, enter a role playing game called The Magical Gathering of Dragons in Dungeons, and even fight book banners! Eventually, they are restored to their original incarnations, and use a book of poetry to inspire a young artist named Tom Anklebarker, or something like that, to create a comic book with a two-headed chicken in it.

Good Points
Like the first book in the series, this is a frenetic goof fest of crazy adventures and silly conflicts, illustrated in a hyperactive style. There are close up photographs of brocolli to illustrate the time stream, Victorian clip art and sepia toned pages with information about Bangerter's Marvelous Time Cap, and a lot of brightly colored comic style illustrations that are heavy on bright blue, purple, red and yellow.

I especially appreciated the fact that on one of the activity pages, it is mentioned that if the reader has a library book, there are printable pages at twoheadedchicken.com, but the site didn't seem to have activity pages.

Not surprisingly, Angleberger gives a shout out to Daniel Pinkwater's work like the 1982 The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death, and this certainly embraces that stream of conscious style, replete with random characters, sight gags, and self referential jokes. This graphic novel would definitely be a good way to warm up younger readers for eventually picking up Pinkwater's 2007 The Neddiad: How Neddie Took the Train, Went to Hollywood, and Saved Civilization (Neddie & Friends, #1).

Readers who love Dav Pilkey's work or Green's Investigators will appreciate the frenzied art and nonstop jokes as the Two-Headed Chicken travels through the chronoverse getting into trouble. Things work out in the end, but who knows when further opportunities to POOOOOZB might occur!
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