Henrietta's two older sisters love to tease her. When they try to convince her that she's actually a chicken instead of a little girl, it's pretty hard to believe at first. But the evidence is all there: her legs are kind of yellow, and her toes are kind of long. The feathers she finds beside her bed the next morning settle it, and Henrietta heads off to the farm to find her real family.

The chickens welcome her with open wings, and this lovably gullible heroine's joyful acceptance of who she really is will have readers squawking with laughter.

"Henrietta's older sisters are such expert teasers that they're able to convince her that she is really a chicken, obtained at birth from the local egg farm. 'You grow feathers every night,' says the oldest sister, 'and we have to pluck them out before you wake up.... It's why we get more allowance than you do.' But being a chicken may not be a terrible fate, as Henrietta discovers when she runs away to the farm in search of 'her real family.' The setting is idyllic, the farmer is nice ('Always got room for another free-ranger,' he tells her), and she's readily accepted by her feathered relatives (they are marvelously imagined with googly eyes, dazed smiles and fork-like legs). Even when the older sisters 'fess up after being dispatched to the farm by their angry parents, Henrietta isn't sure she wants to believe them. 'You would never call me a dumbhead, would you?' she coos to her new 'little sister,' a doting brown hen. Accused of exacting revenge by playing the fool, she replies, 'I'm just a chicken. What do I know about trouble?' Amato's (Please Write in This Book) Seinfeldian storytelling is set off brilliantly by Durand's (Beetle Boy) off-kilter, kid-like cartooning. Packed with funny details and small plots (the farmer's fat cat is apparently besotted with a chick), the art, like the story, delivers grade-AA comedy. Ages 4-up." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"Durand's colorful cartoon illustrations add to the silliness with the antics of the farmyard residents and the girls' expressions (the egglike appearance of their wide eyes continues the chicken theme)." School Library Journal

"It's the most satisfying turn of the tables since Chris Van Allsburg's similarly themed Probuditi!" Kirkus Reviews

Mary Amato lives outside of Washington, DC.

Delphine Durand lives in Marseille, France.