Ladybug Nominee Profile

In Bad Boys Willy and Wally Wolf's infiltration of a flock of sheep proves to be a shearing experience. Their next adventure led them on a chase after one smart cookie. What awaits the mischievous Bad Boys this time? Their craving for a chicken dinner lands them in a load of work in Margie Palatini and Henry Cole's new book Bad Boys Get Henpecked!

All the Bad Boys adventures to-date are published by Katherine Tagen Books, an imprint of Harper Collins. The original tale is included in the Harper Collins publication Fun with Fairy Tales: A Teacher's Guide. There is a cool Bad Boys crossword puzzle on the author's website along with other puzzles and activities.

"Willy and Wally Wolf, hungry for a finger-lickin' chicken dinner, disguise themselves as chickens and pose as domestic workers for hire. Dubbing themselves the "Handy-Dandy Lupino Brothers," they hatch a plan to clean out the coop. Mother hen is delighted by the brothers' offer, but admonishes that she can "pay mere chicken feed." They reply in delight, "We work for cheep." In an instant, Willy and Wally are laden with aprons, cleaning equipment, and supplies and handed a lengthy to-do list. They sweep, mop, scrub, vacuum, dust, polish, wash, hang, iron, and take out garbage. All that when they aren't watching dozens of chicks. Exhausted, they quickly fall into a deep slumber, and the chicks run wild, at least until their mother returns. Willy and Wally hightail it out of there, having lost their taste for chicken. With its fast-paced language and witty narrative paired with lively alliteration and puns, the Bad Boys' latest tale will entertain and capture youngsters' imaginations. Cole deftly expresses humor and the power of understatement in his pencil and watercolor illustrations. Expressive facial expressions and body language tell all." (School Library Journal review)

This is one of the ten titles nominated for the 2010 Ladybug Picture Book Award. Ms. Palatini's work has been nominated before: Moo Who? (2005) and Tub-boo-boo (2004) were past Ladybug Picture Book Award nominees. Mr. Cole's book, Big Chickens Fly the Coop was nominated in 2009.