The Chicken-Chasing Queen of Lamar County
Written by: Janice Harrington
Illustrated by: Shelley Jackson
Do you know how to chase a chicken? Who knew that chicken-chasing required such skill and precision! In The Chicken-Chasing Queen of Lamar County you get to meet a spunky young girl who adores chasing chickens on her grandmother's farm. The only problem is, she has yet to perfect the art of actually catching her favorite one she calls Miss Hen who is "as fast as a mosquito buzzing and quick as a fleabite." You will delight in her antics as she tries multiple attempts to capture her ultimate prize chicken. Each round ends with a "PAH-QUAWKKKK!" as chickens go fleeing in every direction and Miss Hen's yellow legs go scooting quick-quick-quick until they are gone! But after a long hard effort at going for the capture, what makes the best Chicken-Chasing Queen of Lamar County have a change of heart? You're just going to have to swing by the library and read this title for yourself to find out!
This book is chock-full of figurative language with similes and metaphors on every page turn. Some of my favorites that Janice Harrington uses in this story include descriptions to describe Miss Hen such as, "her feathers are shiny as a rained-on roof....and when she talks -- "Pruck! Pruck! Pruck! -- it sounds like pennies falling on a dinner plate....I call her Miss Hen, and she's plump as a Sunday purse." It would serve as a wonderful mentor text when illustrating how authors use figurative language to create a descriptive picture in the reader's mind. This book, just like "The Snowy Day" from an earlier blog post would be a good choice when discussing small moments. The author created the experience of the main character trying to capture this one chicken and stretched that experience out over the course of an entire story. How can our students demonstrate this same kind of writing with their own experiences? How could a book like this be used to model this writing technique?
Janice Harrington is an African-American author and poet. She has also worked as a librarian and professional storyteller. She currently teaches creative writing at the University of Illinois. To learn more about her and see other books she has written click here.
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