Text/Chen Jing (Teacher, Picture Book Researcher, Department of Chinese, East China Normal University)
Elmer Harder and Bertha Harder were a pair of gods in the American art world who were active in the 1920s and 1950s and together they wrote nearly 100 children's books. Among them, the most famous is the picture book "Heavy Snow", which won the Cadick Gold Medal in 1949.
The book "Rooster Oh Oh Oh" was also written by both of them and won the 1940 Cadick Silver Award.
First published in 1939, Rooster Oh Oh Oh, like famous works such as Angus and the Duck and The Runaway Rabbit, has typical contemporary features.
In order to save costs, they are designed to be interlaced with color and black and white diagrams. However, this form does not reduce the artistic standard of "Rooster Oh Oh Oh". The pictures in the book are full of beauty and poetry, and the waves of water, trees, and spaces full of light and shadow are like charming Impressionist landscape paintings. The characters in the story often jump out of the square border of the picture due to movement, and this layout makes the whole book full of design, implying a rhythm of tension and order.
Such a beautiful "Rooster Oh Oh Oh", what kind of a story is it about? A little red chicken born in a flock of ducks is called by the rooster chirping on the hilltop farm to travel alone through the dangerous forest to its destination and grow into adulthood. Obviously, this is a story with the theme of personal growth and realizing dreams.
Both in terms of the time of publication and in terms of its subject matter, the book is old and old-fashioned. However, as long as you patiently read with the children and meet with the community, you will find that the story of the little red chicken has not lost its meaning and value today.
The little red chicken, like Andersen's ugly duckling, was born out of the outlier. Although the surrounding environment is full of good intentions, he is still at a loss, which is due to the incompatibility of nature. Once he noticed the rooster crowing on the hilltop farm and felt the power that summoned the soul, he resolutely embarked on the road to leave the place of ease and run to the place of the soul. This courage and strength surpassed his small pompom-like stature and was almost on par with the ancient Greek hero Odysseus, who was constantly on his way home. However, is this assessment somewhat exaggerated? In fact, little red chicken is not inferior to Odysseus at all. Like the latter, he had to face the test of life and death again and again, relying on patience, perseverance and luck to face powerful predators, escape bad luck, and get close to the territory of the summoning heart.
The most intriguing of these is that the little red chicken still follows his instincts and risks his life to warn the other party when others are in distress and his own situation is extremely bad – and he succeeds. This is the most moving part of the book. Even the smallest weak can still gain self-identification through positive connections with others. Like Kiki in "Witch House Rush", even if she is not the best broom controller, she is still willing to accept the challenge and help others. Life does not belong only to the strong, but also to the weak who constantly inspire themselves to cheer themselves up. This is what life should be.
It is in this sense that the Hades show people the inspiring power of a little red chicken as weak as a child. At the same time, they also suggest metaphorically that even in a home-like place, growth is not easy. When the little red chicken arrives at the hilltop farm, although he is enthusiastically called, the adult birds are better at grabbing food, and when escaping from the eagle, his small situation is always the most dangerous. This is the dilemma that children in the adult world have to face. They are always lost opportunities due to intentional or unintentional actions of adults, or are exposed to danger. What should children do when they are in such moments? Obviously, the little red chicken cannot find the perfect answer to this question for humans, but he shows the value of positive thinking and action.
He strives to survive, and he cherishes the opportunity to return to his fellow human beings and live in harmony with them. As a result, he continued to advance on the path of growth guided by instinct and nature. As he grows, he gains strength that cannot be underestimated. Perhaps, this is the reality that children must face and make trade-offs on the road to growth. Adults who realize this should respect children who want to grow hard.
When Mom and Dad put their arms around their children to read the book, as adult readers, they especially need to be patient with the meaning of the farmer who does not distinguish between chickens and ducks designed by the author, and the little red chicken cannot swim in the river like a duck.
Both of these are speaking to adults, and the author wants to warn adults not to insist on merging with the group regardless of the child's natural nature and individual differences; and it is always necessary to take the child's personality seriously, to find and listen to the song that summons the heart with him, and to create conditions for him to realize himself. This is the most important growth path that adults need to take after having children.
Think about it, even a little red chicken wants to try to grow into what he can become, so as an adult, shouldn't he also patiently listen to and summon the song of his own and his child's heart in his busy life? I believe that readers who meet Rooster Oh Oh Oh, whether children or adults, can do something about it. Whatever it was, it was something to celebrate, because it meant that we had begun to run to the place where the mind was called.