[BOOK REVIEW] Little Rooster's Diamond Button by Margaret Read MacDonald

Title:  Little Rooster's Diamond Button

Author:  Margaret Read MacDonald

Artist:  Will Terry

Genre:  Animals / Manners / Folktale / Hungary / Magic

Year Published: 2007

Year Read:  2015

Publisher:   Albert Whitman & Company

Source:  Library

Content Rating:  Ages 5+  (Nothing Objectionable)

Buy or Add on:  Amazon  //  Goodreads

Now, I have read many unusual and creative folktales over the years, but I have never read a folktale quite like this one!  “Little Rooster’s Diamond Button” is a Hungarian folktale retold by Margaret Read MacDonald along with illustrations by Will Terry that is so bizarre yet hilarious that any child would enjoy reading this book!

The story starts off with Little Rooster finding a beautiful diamond button in the ground and he decided to give the button to his mistress.  Unfortunately, the king comes along and he ends up stealing the diamond button from Little Rooster to put into his treasure chamber.  But when Little Rooster went after the king and demanded that the king should give him back his diamond button, the king got extremely angry and he ordered Little Rooster to be thrown down the well!  However, it turns out that Little Rooster has a magic stomach that could consume anything on command and Little Rooster ended up drinking up all the water in the well!  This ended up making the king even angrier and he then ordered Little Rooster to be thrown into the fire!

Will Little Rooster’s magic stomach get him out of this situation and will he get his diamond button back?

Read this book to find out!

Margaret Read MacDonald has done it again in retelling an ancient folktale and making the story innovating for the readers!  I loved the way that Margaret Read MacDonald retold this story as I found the story to be pretty hilarious and creative and I was intrigued with Little Rooster’s predicament in trying to get his diamond button back from the king. I loved the fact that this story teaches children about the consequences of being too greedy and I loved how brave and determined Little Rooster was in trying to confront the King and get his prized diamond ring back.  I think it took a lot of courage from Little Rooster to confront the King about his actions and it shows children that if a great wrong has been done to you, you should try to stand up for yourself to make things right again.  But probably the best part of this story was the fact that Little Rooster has a magic stomach that is able to consume anything on command! I found that to be pretty interesting for this story because even though I have read some folktales where characters are able to consume large amounts of food (The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship), I am still amazed that there is a story where a character has a magical stomach and is able to use that stomach to get themselves out of various predicaments!  Will Terry’s illustrations are hilarious and brightly colored and they greatly complement the energetic mood of this story! I also loved the images of the king having big purple baggy pants as it makes him look quite silly and it shows just how silly and arrogant he really is.

Overall, “Little Rooster’s Diamond Button” is a fantastic read for children who want to read folktales from Hungary and who want a good book that would make them laugh!  I would recommend this book to children ages five and up since there is nothing inappropriate in this book.