Review | Are You Ready to Hatch an Unusual Chicken?

Are You Ready to Hatch an Unusual Chicken? (Unusual Chickens #2) by Kelly Jones

We started raising chickens when our daughter was just a baby, so she has grown up with a yard of feathered friends.  She enjoys their eggs (and the song they sing when the lay an egg), chicken jokes, and collecting the feathers when they fall out.

Last year we came across the children’s middle grade book Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer about 12 year old Sophie Brown who has just moved with her parents from L.A. to a farm they inherit from a great uncle Jim.  Sophie finds a small flock of hens on the farm and learns rather quickly that these are no ordinary chickens… they have powers!  Sophie is both determined and resourceful as she learns about chickens and how to care for them (and handle their unusual abilities).

When I found the sequel on NetGalley recently, I had to request an ARC to find out what happens next in Sophie’s adventure!

In Are You Ready to Hatch an Unusual Chicken?, Sophie is settling in at Blackbird Farm and adding new magical chickens to her flock.  She has inherited Redwood Farm from Agnes, an exceptional poultry farmer who raised and sold unusual chickens for many years.

To continue Agnes’s work with unusual chickens, Sophie is sent a batch of eggs to hatch all by herself in an incubator and she’s excited to learn what their super powers will be!  Since the new flock cannot be added to her existing flock (because of the pecking order), Sophie needs to prepare Redwood Farm for its first new flock of chickens in ages!

With her friends and her cousin Lupe (who has recently moved in to attend a nearby college) they clean up Redwood Farm with the help of their community.

It isn’t long after the eggs have hatched that Sophie finds one chicken has an alarming power that could be dangerous!  While navigating her new school, new and exisiting friendships, Sophie also has to learn how to care for baby chicks, keep up with her chicken chores and Redwood Farm, and face her first inspection with the Unusual Poultry Committee!

This was another fun and quirky novel in this children’s middle grade series told in letters/e-mails, lists, and quizzes.  I enjoy the chicken facts and the information included (brief but accurate descriptions on molting, incubating/hatching, etc.) and my daughter loves the funny powers the chickens have.  Young readers can also learn a great deal from Sophie, who is enthusiastic, determined, and caring.  I look forward to seeing what happens next at Blackbird and Redwood Farms!

Thanks to Knopf Books for Young Readers and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review!  Are You Ready to Hatch an Unusual Chicken? is scheduled for release on November 6, 2018.