Squawk of the were-children by Richard J Kendrick.
Almost nothing interesting ever happens in Deidre's little village, outside of the occasional traveling merchant or troupe of players visiting the marketplace. So it's no wonder that she spends her every free moment designing and building outlandish contraptions, and then relying on her semi-autonomous tongue to get her out of trouble--or dig her in deeper--when the device inevitably slimes Momma with something. 
A charming read. Slow but readable. 4*.

I so, so, SO wanted this to be funnier than it was. It was billed as a parody or send up, but it just missed the mark somehow

I received a free copy of this book from Netgalley and therefore submitting this review under this premises. I have not received any further encouragement to give a positive review other than to be honest.

From the first sentence I knew that this was one book that would have the quirky sense of humour that I thoroughly enjoyed, displayed through the Main Character's thoughts (Deirdre) and her acquaintances, especially in the case of the conversations she has with Fyfe, her best friend. This is wonderfully spaced through all of the town occupants, and the visitors, and it gives me a very clear remembrance of the writing of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. Yet even with those parallels to the writings of such great fantasy authors, Richard Kendrick keeps this entire story as exclusively his own.

The careful weaving in of chickens and the entire town revolving around these birds is what makes this book one of the greatest children's books I've read in a long time. The entire town is obsessed with them, with nearly every occupant owning at least one chicken, believing in all the tricks of the chicken witch, who is brilliantly portrayed by Fyfe's mum, and the town even being known throughout the lands for their clockwork master, Torin. These past two may be delicately peppered into the story, never over-used and always a delight to read interacting with Deirdre, but even with the ones who feature heavily such as Deirdre's mum, who may not be mechanically inclined like her daughter but suffers through the various mishaps and -oops- moments with near good natured sensibilities and logic, are a delight.

All the characters are rich in personality like this, especially with the peek into Deirdre's mind as she runs commentary through the entire story. It gives the reader easy access to the way of the workings of the other townspeople, and their land. I admit that this is where I ran into a slight issue, since it took me a few chapters to figure out that though there was quite a bit of -modern- conveniences, at the same time it was a steam-punk world with carts and school classrooms set out in a way that reminds me of the books from Laura Ingalls Wilder. It was barely a blip though, and I easily enveloped myself back into the story, not a bit happy when real life invaded and I had to do adult stuff.

I would highly encourage anyone to read this who loves the -greats- of Fantasy such as Pratchett and Gaimen, whether a child of eleven or an adult. I am planning to read this again on my Kindle and track down the paperback the next time I have a bit of extra money. I also have a slight hope that just maybe this will come out as an audiobook or on Audible so that I can download it. I've been listening to my favourites for several years now, and would love to add this book to it.

Squawk of the Were-Chicken by Richard J. Kendrick
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I wanted something that tickled all my tail feathers and when I saw this on NetGalley, I just had to jump all over it.

I'm glad I did, too. I somewhat expected a tongue-in-cheek fantasy blowing some chicken or another into epic proportions a-la Pratchett, but here's the funny bit: I got a nice taste of fourth-wall literary post-deconstructionism from one character and a smart-mouthed tinkerer from another as they try and often fail to rid their little podunk kingdom of the greatest threat it has ever known!

WERE-CHICKEN!

What surprised me the most, however, was the rather detailed town, townsfolk, and all every-day life. I felt like no one was ever going to take the danger seriously until it was far too late, and that was despite or perhaps entirely because these folks were already chicken-happy to begin with! I mean, seriously, Chicken-prophesies? Chicken-remedies, professional egg-launchers... well, the last was just an accident, but still... you get the idea.

It didn't remain nearly as light as I'd hoped but as a well-rounded novel with not quite as much humor as I might expect from a title like this, I still had a good time.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to check out this author's other works thanks to this!