Hens go for a walk

Author: Pat Hutchins
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-01-01
Features: On this day, the hen Rosie went out of the coop for a walk. She didn't notice that a fox was following her quietly from behind. Rosie went through the farmyard, and the fox jumped up from behind her. But it stepped on a pitchfork, which rebounded and hit its face hard. Rosie went around the pond, and the fox jumped up, but it missed and fell into the pond. Rosie climbed over the haystack, and the fox jumped up, but it burrowed into the haystack. Rosie passed by the flour mill, and her foot got caught in a thread; when the fox jumped up, a bag of flour fell right on it. Rosie squeezed through the fence, and the fox jumped up, but it fell into the cart on the other side of the fence. Rosie went under the beehive, but the cart with the fox crashed over the beehive, and the fox was chased by bees and ran helter-skelter. Rosie returned to the coop and just in time for dinner.
Author: Pat Hutchins
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-01-01
Features: On this day, the hen Rosie went out of the coop for a walk. She didn't notice that a fox was following her quietly from behind. Rosie went through the farmyard, and the fox jumped up from behind her. But it stepped on a pitchfork, which rebounded and hit its face hard. Rosie went around the pond, and the fox jumped up, but it missed and fell into the pond. Rosie climbed over the haystack, and the fox jumped up, but it burrowed into the haystack. Rosie passed by the flour mill, and her foot got caught in a thread; when the fox jumped up, a bag of flour fell right on it. Rosie squeezed through the fence, and the fox jumped up, but it fell into the cart on the other side of the fence. Rosie went under the beehive, but the cart with the fox crashed over the beehive, and the fox was chased by bees and ran helter-skelter. Rosie returned to the coop and just in time for dinner.
Author Bio: Pat Hutchins was born on June 18, 1942, in Yorkshire, England. She loved drawing from a young age and won a scholarship to an art school in her hometown at the age of 16. Three years later, she studied at the Leeds College of Art, specializing in illustration. After graduating, she moved to London, first working as a part-time shop assistant and later joining an advertising company as an assistant designer. There, she met her future husband, Laurence Hutchins. On July 21, 1965, they got married, and two weeks later, she was sent to the American branch in New York with her husband. After arriving in New York, she always wanted to work as an illustrator. At the suggestion of an editor at Macmillan Publishing, she wrote Rosie’s Walk, which made her famous upon its publication in 1968. Her works are bright in color, humorous, simple, and flow smoothly, always addressing children's issues from their perspective with seriousness, making them beloved by children worldwide. Her other major works include The Wind Blew (1974), Titch (1971), Changes, Changes (1971), One Hunter (1983), and The Very Worst Monster (1985), among more than thirty others. In 1968, the Hutchins family moved back to England and lived in London ever since. She once said that her sons Morgan and Sam were an endless source of inspiration for her. Now she has a grandson named Harry Buster, who has brought her new inspiration, and in the spring of 2005, she published a new work.
About the Book’s Achievements and Praise
● 1968 Boston Globe/Horn Book Award for Picture Book Silver Medal
● Selected by the New York Public Library as one of the “100 Picture Books Everyone Should Know”
● Recommended by the American Library Association as an annual best book
● The New York Times Best Children’s Book of the Year
● Selected by the Japan Picture Book Research Association for 100 Best Picture Books in the World
● Selected by the Japan Picture Book Research Group for 500 Picture Books for Children
Review:
Illustrator: Bei Xiaoyang
The warm glow of the sun illuminates a vibrant farm scene, where animals are engaged in their own activities: a squirrel foraging in a tree, a sheep watching over the rice field, and a rabbit playing in a flower bed. Of course, our protagonist, the hen Rosie, is also at home under a tree filled with red fruits. On such a beautiful day, it’s perfect for doing something. But don’t mistake this for the story’s plot—it’s just a picture on the copyright page, and it’s also the beginning that allows you and your child to find the story.
After the story officially begins, the author first tells us, “Rosie the hen went out for a walk.” But the illustration doesn’t just convey this sentence—it shows Rosie strolling leisurely on the road, completely unaware of the danger behind her—a fox, lurking silently. If you cover the text, you can also tell your child about the fox’s hiding places: under Rosie’s house, in the houses along the way, or in dense trees. Of course, you can also let your child explore on their own and find joy in it. Perhaps this is the essence of a picture book—transmitting stories through pictures, which is why children fall in love with reading and develop their imagination and cognitive abilities through rich illustrations.
Rosie continues her walk, “she walked through the yard,” “around the pond,” “over the haystack,” “past the mill,” “through the fence,” and “under the beehive,” and finally, “she returned home on time for dinner.” Every time she passes a place, the fox behind her suffers a misfortune: falling into the pond, burrowing into the haystack, jumping into the cart despite its agility, and being chased and stung by bees. The fox’s clumsy expression and the comical scene of being thoroughly embarrassed contrast sharply with Rosie’s carefree demeanor, making it laugh-out-loud funny. This oblivious hen, completely unaware of the danger, unwittingly turns the situation around.
The text in the story makes up only a small portion, with the illustrations taking the lead. This doesn’t make reading inconvenient but is, in fact, a classic technique of an excellent picture book. The story unfolds gradually in the illustrations, and the characters’ emotions and states are vividly depicted by the artist. The fox’s frustration and Rosie’s ease are revealed in the delicate lines, while details like birds watching from the trees, frogs by the pond, and a sheep tied in the rice field enrich the story and immerse children in the delightful illustrations, which is exactly what a picture book is meant to do.
Illustrator and Classic Author: Peng Yi
This is a picture book that will make young children laugh uncontrollably. Ha-ha, Rosie the hen goes for a leisurely walk. She goes around in a big circle and returns just as carefree. But this country bumpkin doesn’t realize that chaos has erupted behind her. I don’t know why this book reminds me of traditional shadow plays or folk theater like pulling a string puppet show. Yes, it’s a lively rural play with drums and cymbals, staged by the British woman Pat Hutchins alone. She puts on a whole performance of a bustling rural comedy in England.
At its core, it’s a chase story (though the one being chased doesn’t know there’s a hungry fox behind her), and it unfolds through movement. If compared to a movie, it should be a long, continuous tracking shot. Pat Hutchins designed a moving stage for this story—she not only chose a horizontal format of 20.3×25.5 cm but also used full-page spreads for all but the final page of Rosie returning home—thirteen full-page spreads, thirteen scenes that merge into a long horizontal view, guiding us to follow Rosie’s lady-like escape through the countryside.
Not only does the elongated format create a continuous, whimsical sense of everything happening during the walk, but also placing Rosie and the fox in the same frame adds a comical contrast. One takes small, confident steps, while the other is ferocious yet always in a ridiculous state, making the comedy immediately apparent. Pat Hutchins drew Rosie with a strong decorative style, resembling cut-out art, embroidery, or patterns on a sweater. Her head, wings, and tail are yellow, her body is deep red, and she has feather-like patterns and dots drawn in black on her wings and tail, as well as on her body. As for the unfortunate fox, instead of making it ugly because it’s a clown, she made it even more enchanting. Its ears and legs are dark brown, with white ears and bellies, and its body and long, bushy tail are orange, covered in decorative patterns of complex circles, lines, and black triangles, like a beautiful fox demon. Not only the chicken and fox but even the trees, farmhouses, and windmills in the background are painted like decorative art. She was only 26 when she painted this book, which was a bold experiment. However, toddlers embraced this distorted style.
Pat Hutchins truly brought the fox to life. Look at its posture—sometimes hunched, sometimes soaring into the air, and sometimes tumbling headfirst. Then look at its expression—the expressive eyes reveal its cunning and greed. Compared to the fox, Rosie can only be described as “like a log.” She maintains the same posture throughout, half-closed eyes, and walks at the same steady pace. It’s precisely because of this unaware Rosie that the entire story becomes hilarious.
I also love the colors in this book. A review in The New York Times called it a comedy bathed in sunshine. Yes, it’s sunset light—I was captivated by its warm, sunset-like colors the first time I saw it. The orange, olive green, and deep red are perfectly harmonized in a slightly yellow, warm tone. Pat Hutchins herself once said that her favorite color is yellow. Almost all critics noticed that in the twenty-seven illustrations of the main text, there are only 32 English words: “across the yard,” “around the pond.” These words only describe Rosie walking through the yard and around the pond—they’re just a description of her stroll. As for the fox jumping around behind Rosie, it’s not mentioned at all.
So some say that Rosie’s Walk actually includes two stories: one told in text about Rosie’s ordinary walk, and another told in pictures about the fox’s thrilling chase. That’s why John Lovewell Thompson, in A History of English Children’s Literature, says that the focus of this classic work lies in the truth hidden behind the words.
Now we finally understand why this picture book with a familiar theme made Pat Hutchins famous overnight. Yes, it’s a successful example of a story told purely through illustrations. Although there are only a few words, and they appear every other page, Pat Hutchins truly understands children’s psychology. She turned this silent story into one filled with laughter, even designing seven moments for children to laugh. You see, when the pitchfork flattens the fox’s nose, you laugh! When the fox falls into the pond, you laugh! When it burrows into the haystack, you laugh! When it’s buried in flour, you laugh! When it falls into the cart, you laugh! And when the cart crashes over the beehive, and the fox is chased by bees, you laugh even harder—twice as hard!