Chicken Feathers
There is nothing remarkable about Josh Miller’s life on his family’s chicken farm. He collects eggs, tends chard, and fans the flames of a crush on neighbor girl Annalee. Indeed, the only extraordinary part of his rural existence is his geriatric, beer-obsessed, talking pet chicken, Semolina. She's not always a blemish, though. When Josh’s mother enters the hospital because of a difficult pregnancy, Semolina becomes a reluctant confidante. Unfortunately, she speaks only to Josh, and when she identifies a fox as the egg-thieving culprit everyone is looking for, no one believes him. The story unfolds as a smooth amalgam of nostalgic farm tale and contemporary problem novel. Elliot’s warm, evocative pencil sketches, reminiscent of Robert McCloskey’s work, combine with Cowley’s rich storytelling voice to reinforce the novel’s sunny, bucolic surface. Small, lovely details, and careful character development, including a complex relationship between Josh’s mother and visiting grandmother, add resonance to the deeper account of a nine-year-old’s first struggles to find his place in the world and at home. Grades 3-5. --Thom Barthelmess