8.4 /10 1 Votes8.4
4.1/5 Barnes & Noble Pages 36 Genre Picture book Publisher Simon & Schuster | 4.2/5 Goodreads Publication date 1989 Originally published 1989 Page count 36 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Similar Bill Martin - Jr books, Picture books, Alphabet books | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chicka chicka boom boom song by john archambault
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom is a bestselling American children's book written by Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambault, illustrated by Lois Ehlert, and published by Simon & Schuster in 1989. The book features anthropomorphized letters.
Contents
Summary
The 26 lower-case letters climb up a coconut tree in alphabetical order, until the tree bends so much, causing all 26 letters to fall out of the tree. The uppercase letters (the older relatives of the letters climbing the tree) come to help them. Again alphabetically, it describes each letter's injury, including:
At sunset, the letters "X", "Y" and "Z" are the "last to come" from the coconut tree. Later at night, the letter "A" gets up and climbs back up the coconut tree, dare(-)double(-)daring the other letters to catch him.
The book is notable for its rhyming structure which is reminiscent of the jazz vocal improvisation technique known as scat singing.
An audio book version is also available, narrated by Ray Charles.
A CD-ROM version was released in 1995 by Davidson and Simon & Schuster Interactive.
It inspired a 2004 sequel, Chicka, Chicka, 1, 2, 3. A board book for toddlers, entitled Chicka, Chicka ABC was published in 1990 and contains the first half of the full story, which ends up with all 26 letters falling out of the tree.
Recognition
Antecedents
John Newbery's 1744 "A Little Pretty Pocket-Book" might have influenced Bill Martin's text for "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom":
Great E, F, and G,
Come here follow me,
And we will jump over
The Rosemary Tree.
(From A Little Pretty Pocket-Book, page 57)
Album
In 1992, along with musician David Plummer, Archambault released an album composed of several songs based on the storybook, entitled Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and Other Coconutty Songs. The album was named a 1992 "Notable Children’s Recording" by the American Library Association and in 1993, won a Parents' Choice Award.