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3.94 AVERAGE
3.94 AVERAGE
It's an exceptional book, and I think young readers will enjoy it as much as I did...but they might hesitate, as I did, to give it a 100% LOVE rating. Sophie is an excellent main character to lead a city-reader through an experience on a rural farm. She is unabashedly nervous around ordinary out-in-the-country normality, and yet she spots the criminal chicken-thief immediately. Readers will like her from the start, I believe!
However, when a chicken miraculously & magically lays one glass egg, and then some pages later, a plausible, ordinary explanation is mentioned - that farmers sometimes place a human-made egg on a hen's nest to encourage them to nest - many readers will be unsure whether the chickens are magical or the girl Sophie is overly inventive; she already freaks out at a little rustle in the bushes.
The author easily puts those suspicions aside by revealing an undeniably magical chicken feat, but it comes only in the final 5 pages of the book. Was the author testing the reader to see if he/she would trust her? I feel like readers were set up to disbelieve, to assume an unreliable narrator, so the author could say, "Ha!" at the end. Not only does it create distance between the character & reader, it creates a consciousness that the author created the story AND it could lead many readers to wonder why such magical chickens don't get more front-stage roles. Why don't they get to use their magic?
It also bothered me slightly that the parents are so utterly out of it. They don't try, they don't help, they don't notice anything, they never pay attention, and yet they are completely gratuitously and inconsistently overprotective. While the members of the community are more linked and inter-dependent than Sophie or the reader would have suspected, the members of her family are weirdly disconnected from one another, so that it is hard to remember if the mom or the dad was related to the dead great-uncle, and if her dead abuela and her dead uncle are on the same side of the family or not. An entire family of cousins comes through briefly, does nothing and has no effect and also neither says nor notices anything.
Since Sophie is so extraordinarily attentive, alert, and engaged, it's weird that nobody else in her family has any of her great characteristics. Nobody comments on this weirdness, but when she somehow manages to make "migas" - her abuela's special dish, without a recipe - the phones light up and her mom even comes out of her office and the family enjoys one another's company for once. It made me sad that this brief snapshot of familial joy & love only happened once in almost 2 months of the story.
However, when a chicken miraculously & magically lays one glass egg, and then some pages later, a plausible, ordinary explanation is mentioned - that farmers sometimes place a human-made egg on a hen's nest to encourage them to nest - many readers will be unsure whether the chickens are magical or the girl Sophie is overly inventive; she already freaks out at a little rustle in the bushes.
The author easily puts those suspicions aside by revealing an undeniably magical chicken feat, but it comes only in the final 5 pages of the book. Was the author testing the reader to see if he/she would trust her? I feel like readers were set up to disbelieve, to assume an unreliable narrator, so the author could say, "Ha!" at the end. Not only does it create distance between the character & reader, it creates a consciousness that the author created the story AND it could lead many readers to wonder why such magical chickens don't get more front-stage roles. Why don't they get to use their magic?
It also bothered me slightly that the parents are so utterly out of it. They don't try, they don't help, they don't notice anything, they never pay attention, and yet they are completely gratuitously and inconsistently overprotective. While the members of the community are more linked and inter-dependent than Sophie or the reader would have suspected, the members of her family are weirdly disconnected from one another, so that it is hard to remember if the mom or the dad was related to the dead great-uncle, and if her dead abuela and her dead uncle are on the same side of the family or not. An entire family of cousins comes through briefly, does nothing and has no effect and also neither says nor notices anything.
Since Sophie is so extraordinarily attentive, alert, and engaged, it's weird that nobody else in her family has any of her great characteristics. Nobody comments on this weirdness, but when she somehow manages to make "migas" - her abuela's special dish, without a recipe - the phones light up and her mom even comes out of her office and the family enjoys one another's company for once. It made me sad that this brief snapshot of familial joy & love only happened once in almost 2 months of the story.
A junior division Young Reader's Choice book this year. This sweet story is a very quick read with a bit of a surprise twist ending. Great for 3rd grade and up!
Sophie Brown is trying to find her place when mom and dad move her from LA to a farm a great uncle had left him. Things become interesting when Sophie finds one of the chickens who has special powers. More of the uncle’s chickens show up, each with its own unique abilities. Sophie gets help from some locals and a penpal, but she also must contend with another chicken farmer determined to get the special chickens.
Told in a series of letters, quizzes, a correspondence, course, articles, to do lists, and more.
Interesting and funny. The students enjoy this.
Told in a series of letters, quizzes, a correspondence, course, articles, to do lists, and more.
Interesting and funny. The students enjoy this.
Loved it. My kids thought it was a hilarious story. Henrietta is my personal favorite chicken. The book does great at showing what microaggressions are, and I loved how Sofia was able to get the entire community behind her for a great cause.
This was a fun, easy read with a bit of mystery and fantasy as well as poultry information tossed in.
Sophie Brown's family has inherited a farm from her great uncle Jim Brown, and she hopes to be able to have a few chickens of her own one day. The entire story is told through the letters that Sophie writes to a poultry company as well as her dead grandmother and great-uncle.
A cute story and definitely appropriate for upper elementary and early middle school.
Now I need to find the book "The Hoboken Chicken Emergency" and also attempt to make migas.
Sophie Brown's family has inherited a farm from her great uncle Jim Brown, and she hopes to be able to have a few chickens of her own one day. The entire story is told through the letters that Sophie writes to a poultry company as well as her dead grandmother and great-uncle.
A cute story and definitely appropriate for upper elementary and early middle school.
Now I need to find the book "The Hoboken Chicken Emergency" and also attempt to make migas.
hopeful
lighthearted
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death
This was so much fun. Nate and I read it at bedtime over the past month-ish. It has chickens with superpowers, which is fantastic, but it’s at least as much about Sophie finding her place in a new town and realizing that there are more friendly people than she thinks. It’s told all in letters, which is pretty cool. The drawing are hilarious and charming.
Sophie is mixed race (her father is white and her mother is Latina), and I appreciated the way race was handled in the story. It’s there, and Sophie has a few (age appropriate) interactions with people in town that show the challenges of being the only brown kid around.
Sophie is mixed race (her father is white and her mother is Latina), and I appreciated the way race was handled in the story. It’s there, and Sophie has a few (age appropriate) interactions with people in town that show the challenges of being the only brown kid around.
adventurous
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Minor: Death, Racism, Grief
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
My favorite book this year!! Sophie Brown moves to the country with her family and becomes the inheritor of a flock of unusual chickens that once belonged to her Great Uncle Jim. The chickens have various special abilities including moving objects with their minds, laying glass eggs, and disappearing in the face of danger. And danger abounds as the local 4-H leader is trying, not too stealthily, to steal Sophie's chickens.
The story is told through Sophie's letters to various folks including the mysterious Agnes of Redwood Farm Supply and Sophie's own deceased grandmother and Great Uncle Jim. Illustrations are interspersed here and there to highlight particularly funny or harrowing moments.
Friendship, family, and persistence all play a large role in the story, with a healthy dash of willingness to take on new challenges. Childhood issues such as the death of beloved family members and the gaining of independence due to parents having full schedules of their own are dealt with in a round about way while young readers enjoy the action and learn the ins and outs of "poultry sense" along with Sophie.
Can't wait to see what debut author Kelly Jones writes next!
The story is told through Sophie's letters to various folks including the mysterious Agnes of Redwood Farm Supply and Sophie's own deceased grandmother and Great Uncle Jim. Illustrations are interspersed here and there to highlight particularly funny or harrowing moments.
Friendship, family, and persistence all play a large role in the story, with a healthy dash of willingness to take on new challenges. Childhood issues such as the death of beloved family members and the gaining of independence due to parents having full schedules of their own are dealt with in a round about way while young readers enjoy the action and learn the ins and outs of "poultry sense" along with Sophie.
Can't wait to see what debut author Kelly Jones writes next!