Horn Book (Sat Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 2009)

This ode to giggle-inducing body parts focuses on animal rears. A bear holding a duck exhibits a "duck tail," the duck finds itself squished by a "moose caboose," etc., until the ensuing animal tower, rendered by Hawkes in suitably immodest acrylics, is threatened by a "bumblebee bum!" There's not much to the story, but comedian Black has great timing.

Kirkus Reviews

Actor/comedian Black produces a winner with his first children's book. A bear spies honey in a hive high atop a skinny tree, and as other animals come along, they pile on top of each other to create a tower. The focus of the story, and of Hawkes's brilliant acrylic cartoons, is animal backsides—"moose caboose," "penguin patootie" and, of course, "chicken cheeks." Pictures tell the story, with minimal text adding humor with rhyme, alliteration and clever wordplay. The visual humor is outstanding: What comes out of chicken cheeks? An egg of course, cracked upon the moose's nose. The animals' expressions are priceless as they struggle under each other's weight; the sight of the guinea pig straining to hold up the "deer rear" is positively hysterical. A "bumblebee bum" provides the climax to the story, and the tale concludes wordlessly, showing who gets to enjoy the honey in the end, or "the ends," as the author puts it. No butts about it, this is a perfect collaboration of text and illustration. (Picture book. 3-8)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

A bear's inspired idea to create a tower of animals in order to reach some honey is all the premise that Hawkes (<EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">Library Lion) and debut author Black need to launch an encyclopedia of animal posteriors. As the tower grows, readers learn that, in Hawkes and Black's alternative universe, a duck's rear end may be a tail, but a moose has a caboose, a turkey has a tushy, and a toucan a can. Hawkes's cast runs the gamut of goofy expressions; this smorgasbord of demeanors, coupled with the sheer improbability of the tower (the rhinoceros and giraffe are stacked upside-down on top of a very spindly flamingo), make this a surefire crowd-pleaser. The tower is finally undone by the stinger on a bumblebee, but not before readers' vocabularies have been boosted by 16 ways to refer to buttocks. And if that's not an example of literature enriching our lives, what is? Ages 3–7. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Jan.)

School Library Journal (Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 CST 2009)

PreS-Gr 1 As every parent and teacher knows, little kids giggle over rear ends-and Chicken Cheeks is sure to keep them laughing. It features the hind quarters of animals, complete with silly names for them, from beginning towellend: "rhinoceros rump," "penguin patootie," "polar bear derriere," "turkey tushy." The close-up, color-saturated illustrationswhich are at the same time obviously hilarious and sneakily deadpantell a story. A brown bear stands poised atop a ladder, gazing thoughtfully up the skinny trunk of a tall, branch-free tree. He grabs a duck and sets it on his head. As he does, readers get an eyeful of the duck's rear; the accompanying text merely says "duck tail." Somehow a huge moose finds itself perched on top of the duck's head: "moose caboose." When a chicken precariously clasps the moose's antlers and proceeds to lay an egg on its nose, only the bear is smiling. Credibility is suspended by the time the moose sits on the duck without squashing it. Sixteen animals later, children can only laugh helplessly at the absurd ladder of animals balanced parallel to the tree trunk. By then they're able to see what the bear was trying to do-and how it backfires. Filled with visual jokes and amusing details, Chicken Cheeks is a lot more than a list of words for kids to snicker at. Susan Weitz, formerly at Spencer-Van Etten School District, Spencer, NY