Sophie reads to her chickens from The Hoboken Chicken Emergency - which is actually a real book! How did it influence Unusual Chickens? What are some of your other writing influences? But even after she’d appeared, I still had to listen to how kids interact with their worlds, ask bicultural and Latina writers for help with things I wasn’t sure about, and remember what it felt like to be a 12-year-old girl. I imagine she came from years of paying attention to all the tiny things that make us who we are, and what funny people have to say about it. Kelly Jones: Sophie showed up in my mind at the beginning of writing this book (believe it or not, this is fairly normal for writers), complete with her own way of seeing the world. Sophie is a daring go-getter with a mind of her own, instantly lovable and sharp as a tack.

“Told in letters, this is sweet and funny, with a touch of magic and tons of chickens! It’s a perfect, entertaining - but meaningful - read for the elementary set.”Ī former children’s librarian and bookseller, Jones lives in Seattle with her very own (and possibly unusual) chickens. “Fantastic!” said Tegan Tigani of Queen Anne Book Company in Seattle, Washington, of Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer.

Things get interesting - and a bit magical - when a cranky chicken appears and Sophie discovers it can move objects with the power of its little chicken brain: jam jars, the latch to the henhouse, even the henhouse itself. In Jones’ debut, 12-year-old Sophie Brown and her parents move from bustling Los Angeles to a quiet farm the family has inherited from a relative.

Kelly Jones is the author of Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer (Knopf Books for Young Readers), a Spring 2015 Indies Introduce title for middle-grade readers and a Summer 2015 Kids’ Indie Next List pick.

Unusual chickens for the exceptional