Children's Books about Chickens

Chickens have played a number of roles in literature for children. Here are reviews of ten picture books about chickens for kids, plus more recommendations.

Certain animals seem to dominate children's literature. Surely, somewhere in the Winnie-the-Pooh/Peter Rabbit era, bears and bunnies had a meeting and divided up the territory. ("OK, you take cute and fuzzy, we'll take clever and mischievous. Bedtime stories are up for grabs.") Ducks muscled their way in somewhere along the line ("Make Way for Ducklings!").

Chickens are innately comical and some of the best children's book authors and illustrators have tapped into that to create wonderfully fun books. Here are my favorites. Please contact me if you have a suggestion to add to this list! Of course, I have to start this list with my very own book.

My mum recently realised a long held ambition - to start keeping chickens. She's got three little hens, Pippi Longstocking (because she's so adventurous), Mabel and Rosie, and recently M and J got to meet them for the first time. In honour of these new members of the extended family we've been reading lots and lots of chicken stories.

This post is dedicated to my sister who once saw a chicken near her apartment in the city. She was so surprised that she called the police who in turn were not surprised nor concerned about this urban chicken. She also had a wild turkey roost outside of her apartment in a different urban center.