05 July 2017 by Christina Barker
Title: Big Red Rooster (Stories of animal sign series)
Author: Xue Lin
Reviewer: Christina Barker
On the front cover, The Big Red Rooster is crowing to the morning sun shining bright. It is very colourful in line with the rest of the animal sign series books.
Big Red Rooster wanted to join the race but all the other animals laughed at him because he couldn’t run fast and he could barely fly. He was the only bird to finish the race and ended up coming tenth!
After an incident with the suns, all the animals tried to help but it was Big Red Rooster who was the one to save them with his very loud crow. Now I know why Roosters crow first thing in the morning! I love how it tells such a great story for children and adults alike which everyone can relate to.
Reviewer: Taylor Brooker 
This was the first book I read in our animal signs series, and I found it so interesting how I was learning new things straight away! I’ve found that a lot of Snowflake’s books explore the stories behind things we already know, for example, ‘How Mouse Gave his Name to the First Year’ tells us the reason behind cat and mouse not getting along. ‘Big Red Rooster’ is no exception, and it teaches us the Chinese story behind why Rooster crow every morning, which is really interesting!
Once again, there are beautiful illustrations that enhance the story and make it appealing for young children and adults alike. Light has been used a lot throughout the book’s illustrations to help tell the story, which creates atmosphere and pathetic fallacy, making the audience feel emotional. At the beginning and end of the book, the colours are golden, bright and playful, whereas in the middle of the book where the plot takes a turn and a problem arises, the colours are darker and deeper, but still rich.
