Peggy: A Brave Chicken on a Big Adventure

by Anna Walker, Anna Walker (Illustrator)

Overview

Peggy the hen is contented with her quiet existence and daily routine. When a powerful gust of wind sweeps her up and deposits her in the midst of a busy city, she explores her new surroundings, makes new friends, and cleverly figures out how to get home—with a newly kindled appetite for adventure. Evocative full-color paintings follow Peggy’s journey, offering comical details that reward repeated viewing. This reassuring tale and its unruffled heroine invites discussions of exploration, safety, and resourcefulness

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780544259003
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	03/04/2014
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	9.90(w) x 10.40(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	AD500L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 7 Years

About the Author

Author and illustrator Anna Walker has won numerous children’s book design and writing awards in her native Australia. The artwork and stories she’s created in her Melbourne studio have reached young readers worldwide. www.annawalker.com.au, Twitter: @basementbird, Instagram: @_annawalker_

Author and illustrator Anna Walker has won numerous children’s book design and writing awards in her native Australia. The artwork and stories she’s created in her Melbourne studio have reached young readers worldwide. www.annawalker.com.au, Twitter: @basementbird, Instagram: @_annawalker_

Editorial Reviews

04/14/2014
When a gust of wind sweeps a coal-black chicken named Peggy away from her quiet and predictable suburban life and into the city, she rapidly adjusts to her new surroundings: "Peggy landed with a soft thud. She was far from home. She picked herself up, ruffled her feathers, and went for a walk. Peggy saw things she had never seen before." Walker creates a gorgeous, rain-washed cityscape, inhabited by anonymous figures in muted colors and photo-collaged images of passing buildings; the lone chicken, walking confidently within the crowd, receives only casual attention. Humorous spot illustrations show Peggy's many urban sojourns, including getting sprayed by a water fountain, catching a movie, eating pasta, and inspecting a pair of polka-dot underwear at a "Bargain Sale." A familiar sight helps her find her way back to her own yard. Originally published in Australia, Walker's story speaks to the ways traveling can change a person (or a chicken) and expand one's worldview, particularly when one has a home to come back to. Ages 4–8. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

"A charmer of a chicken. . . Here's hoping that Peggy has many more big adventures."
—Kirkus, starred review

From the Publisher

★ 04/01/2014
PreS-Gr 1—Peggy the hen likes her routine. When a windstorm blows her out of her decorative suburban chicken coop, she has to adjust to the unfamiliar sights and sounds of a busy city. She tries on shoes, eats popcorn at the movie theater, and makes a cozy nest in a furniture store. Although she isn't able to communicate with anyone in the crowds, Peggy eventually finds her way back home by following the trail of a bouquet of sunflowers and, later, a flock of pigeons. Walker's ink and photo collage illustrations are dreamlike in appearance. Admirers of Janet Morgan Stoeke's "Minerva Louise" books (Dutton) will relish the chance to meet another charming chicken.—Tanya Boudreau, Cold Lake Public Library, AB, Canada

School Library Journal

★ 2014-01-29
A charmer of a chicken has a big adventure in this import from Australia. Peggy is a hen contented with her life in a sweet, small (hen)house that occupies the sunflower-bedecked yard of a suburban home. Understated text reveals her daily routine of breakfast, play in the backyard and pigeon watching, and accompanying ink-and–photo-collage illustrations humorously depict her eating from a bowl, jumping on a trampoline and gazing at pigeons. The little hen meets a challenge when a gust of wind sends her sailing off the trampoline, out of the safety of her yard and into a bustling city. A stunning wordless spread that doubles as cover art then shows her walking amid a crowd of pedestrians, umbrellas aloft. "Peggy watched, hopped, jumped, twirled, and tasted," and droll art expands on these simple verbs with delightful vignettes. In keeping with the classic home-away-home plot arc, Peggy grows homesick and hopefully follows a city dweller carrying sunflowers like those from her yard. Forlorn when this plan fails, she is heartened by the appearance of pigeons who helpfully shepherd her home. In a pitch-perfect resolution, Peggy resumes her routine, but instead of just watching the pigeons, she now chats with them, and the final page turn assures readers that she sometimes catches "the train to the city." Here's hoping that Peggy has many more big adventures. (Picture book. 3-7)

Kirkus Reviews