Review by Booklist Review
Henrietta's older sisters love to tease, but they reach new heights when they inform Henrietta that she's a chicken: Mom got you from Barney's farm. Arguments about having no feathers don't hold sway. But soon Henrietta thinks she may, indeed, be a chicken especially after she finds an egg in her bed. So she heads over to Barney's farm to commune with her sister chicks, flapping her arms, and rolling in dirt. When her sisters come to take her home, Henrietta informs them that she is a chicken. Now, its up to the siblings to work as hard to convince Henrietta of her humanity as they did of her fowlness. The knowing premise, so true to the shenanigans of real siblings, runs its amusing course until the conclusion, when the effort peters out. But kids will still get plenty of laughs from both the story and the bright pictures on clean, white backgrounds. Henrietta, as homely as she is humorous, shows readers how to turn teasing upside down.--Cooper, Ilene Copyright 2008 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
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. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 3-The dynamics of sibling relationships are played for laughs with enormous success in this picture book about three sisters. Henrietta is usually the brunt of her older sisters' teasing. When they trick her into believing that she is a chicken by planting an egg and two feathers in her bedroom, she runs away to a nearby farm to find her real family. Accepted by the farmer and the fowl as one of their own, Henrietta makes her sisters squirm when they are sent by their parents to bring her home. The wacky plot is made all the more comical by the straightforward, almost deadpan, delivery. 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). When using this book as a read-aloud, be sure to share Amato's dedication, which notes her inspiration for the story.-Maura Bresnahan, High Plain Elementary School, Andover, MA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
Using a strategically placed egg and two feathers, Henrietta's big sisters convince her that she is a chicken, not a girl. Unable to face her human family, Henrietta escapes to the neighbor's farm where she finds comfort in the hen house--and leaves her sisters to deal with the parental fall-out. Clean-lined illustrations capture the silly and satisfying twist of a quirky sibling prank that backfires. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Henrietta's two older sisters teasingly tell her that she's really a chicken, then leave an egg and feathers around her bed as "proof." More than half-convinced, Henrietta leaves home for the nearest farm and, finding the company in the henyard surprisingly convivial, refuses to leave when her busted sisters arrive to fetch her back. Marching about on similarly stubby legs, Henrietta and the hens mingle peaceably in Durand's cartoon illustrations, and create such an idyllic playscape that one sister joins in (the other marches off in disgust). In a finale that rings true, the two are last seen strutting triumphantly homeward with big smiles on their faces, as the remaining sister faces the parental music. It's the most satisfying turn of the tables since Chris Van Allsburg's similarly themed Probuditi! (2006). (Picture book. 6-8) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
