Wings: A Tale of Two Chickens

Wings gets off to a flying start as Winnie, a bored chicken, takes off in a stranger's balloon basket, so she can ""live a little.'' Foolish, uneducated Winnie never realizes until the tale's end that the stranger is a fox planning a chicken dinner. But her sensible sister Harriet (who knows about foxes) recognizes the danger and, in a clever disguise, outfoxes the abductor after some madcap shenanigans. But there is more here than just a hilarious plotvery real characters, a plug for reading, a warning about strangers and, above all, animated, breezy art full of detail, expression and humor. Marshall is in top form here. (38)