Picture books about hens catch my eye, I have a soft-spot for that particular genre. This particular book, I took home with me. Louise, The Adventures of a Chicken is by Kate DiCamillo- the author of The tale of Despereux. It's a keeper, you have to take it home. To sum it up, Louise is a hen who longs for adventures and she has several in this book.
Chapter 1-Louise at sea...it says it all, really.
Here is an excerpt from the inside flap...
"She longed for adventure. So she left her home and ventured out into the wide world. The pleasures and perils she met proved plentiful:...Yet in the face of such daunting danger, our heroine...She was brave. She was fearless. She was feathered. She was a chicken. A not-so-chicken chicken. Her name? Louise."
Illustrations by Harry Bliss are a combination of comic and scenic..-wonderful.
Here are some of the quotable parts that just tickle me, and I quoth these often..as often as I can work them in...
"Louise stood alone on the deck of the ship and let the wind ruffle her feathers..."
and
"Her heart beat fast within her feathered breast." -that is my favorite quote, and it is repeated throughout the story, much to my delight...
..."And inside the henhouse, safe and warm, all the chickens slept the deep and dreamless and peaceful sleep of true adventurers."
sigh. Love it.