Chicken Boy

Gr 4-7 -In Raleigh, NC, seventh-grader Tobin McCauley has let life pass him by since his mother died five years earlier, but when a new student at school befriends him, he begins to look at the world with fresh eyes. Tobin has been the odd kid out for so long that when Henry Otis engages him in conversation and invites him over, the boy wonders what to make of it all. While Tobin's father is working or out on weekends, he and his older siblings scrounge for cereal to eat while watching television and long for the mother they vaguely remember. -When you learn about chickens, you will learn about life - is good advice from Henry and the basis for this story. Tobin learns just where he fits in as a school project to raise chickens develops into more than just a way to get extra credit. He describes his emotions, saying, -I'd been feeling kind of funny in general, like a snake shedding its skin and finding out it was a whole different animal underneath. - Tobin's life will resonate with many young people who are struggling to see just where they fit in. His grandmother and her sky blue Toyota truck add humorous relief to such weighty subjects as child custody and the death of a parent. This is a refreshingly well-written encounter with richly developed and well-defined characters whom readers won't soon forget." -Cheryl Ashton, Amherst Public Library, OH" Copyright 2005 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

As sensitively wrought if not quite as engrossing as Dowell's "Dovey Coe", this slice-of-life novel shows the hurt, pride and hidden potential of a boy from a dysfunctional family. When Toby McCauley enters seventh grade, everyone expects him to be as much a troublemaker as his older siblings and as "crazy" as his grandmother, who gets arrested after driving up the sidewalk to drop Toby off at junior high for his first day of school. Upholding McCauley tradition, Toby does play the role of a rebel at first, peeving Coach Kelly by refusing to change his clothes for P.E. and earning himself a suspension for getting into a fight. It isn't until he finds a friend in classmate Henry, an aspiring chicken farmer, that Toby begins to turn things around. Using economical prose, colorfully strewn with rural dialect, the author traces how Toby, previously a loner, learns to trust people outside the McCauley clan as he helps Henry and his younger brother raise chickens. If Toby doesn't share Henry's passion for hens (at least at first), he does appreciate his friend's stable home life and gentle encouragement to embrace rather than resist opportunities to excel. Once again displaying a keen ear for dialogue and a skill for painting pictures with words, the author creates a story of friendship and family conflict that is both heart-wrenching and heartwarming. Ages 10-up. "(Aug.)" Copyright 2005 Publishers Weekly Used with permission.

"This is a refreshingly well-written encounter with richly developed and well-defined characters whom readers won't soon forget."

— "School Library Journal", starred review