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Argus    by Michelle Knudsen & Andrea Wesson Amazon.com order for
Argus
by Michelle Knudsen
Order:  USA  Can
Candlewick, 2011 (2011)
Hardcover
* *   Reviewed by Bob Walch

When our teacher said our class was going to do a science project and then she gave each of us an egg to hatch, and raise the chick inside, I thought, 'What fun!'

But my egg looked a little funny. When it hatched in the incubator, rather than a fluffy little chick, out popped a green, scaly creature with a long snout and yellow eyes. I knew this wasn't right!

I said something to Mrs. Henshaw about this odd looking critter but all she responded with was, 'Sally, don't be difficult. Some chicks just, uh, look different – that's all.'

'Well, that's OK, I guess!' I thought. So I took care of the odd green chick and decided to name him Argus. But as the project continued, I knew that this wasn't quite right. Argus was so much bigger than the other chicks and while they liked to eat seeds or bugs, Argus tried to eat them!

This was not a good situation! We had to keep him away from the other chicks and when Argus started giving my classmates hungry looks, Mrs. Henshaw decided it might be a good idea to create a special area just for for him.

Let me tell you, Argus got bigger and bigger and as he did the problems keeping him in the classroom became a lot more interesting. Then one day Agrus disappeared. At first I wasn't too unhappy, but then I realized that even though he was rather difficult to deal with, I actually missed him.

I'm not going to tell you the rest of the story or explain where we found Argus. I'll let you discover all of that for yourself when you read this picture book. If you are four years of age or older I think you'll really enjoy this strange but funny story.

Also, when you see Argus' picture I think you'll figure out pretty quickly that he really wasn't a chicken. I don't know how I got the wrong egg, but obviously I did because Argus really was a ... (oops, I almost told you!!)

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