Unusual Chickens For the Exceptional Poultry Farmer was not a short picture book as I first thought it was. In fact, it was a book much more for elementary age readers.It took me a bit to get into the book but once I did, I was happy about it.

The book is a tongue and cheek humor book with the likes of 4H gone wild. I loved that the story was told in a series of letters to her deceased grandmother. By writing on an old typewriter, the main character is able to type out her feelings about life on a farm, being a farmer, new friends, and mysterious chickens that seem to just appear.

I seriously laughed at some of the different quirks each of the breeds of chickens had. At the same time, I could relate to the main character's feelings of missing Grandma and advice. I also liked that this was a multicultural book that children could relate too.

Overall, I give this book a high 5 cluck

"...life's just more mysterious than most people think..."

This book scores the hat trick-plus. We have a charming, spunky, observant, articulate, and rueful-deadpan heroine. The story is set on a reasonably authentic farm rather than in the usual urban or suburban neighborhood. We have subtle observations regarding race, ethnicity, cultural difference, and the like. And then, on top of all that, we get a mild, magical-realism, fantasy story line that sneaks into the tale almost as an afterthought and that feels as normal as pie. There is nothing precious or magicky or weird about Sophie's unusual chickens except that they are especially unusual, which somehow seems perfectly normal.

Special note must be made of the important contribution that the illustrations make to this book. Often drawings in a book of this sort don't sync very well with the storytelling style, don't capture the flavor of the story, or just don't add much or make an impression. Here, though, the drawings are funny, expressive and full of life and energy. They enhance the story and I suspect that they would be helpful to a younger reader and amusing for any reader.

If that isn't good enough for you, well, this book has a number of shout-outs to Daniel Pinkwater's "The Hoboken Chicken Emergency", which I truly believe is the greatest giant chicken book ever written.

So, a fine heroine, an interesting story, dry and sometimes edgy humor, lots of insightful throwaway lines and observations, and unusual chickens. Exceptional, indeed.

(Please note that I received a free advance ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

Sorry, requested but did not find the time to review.