by Moe Zilla

Created on: February 23, 2010

George Booth was 82 years old when he drew the illustrations for "Starlight Goes to  Town." He'd been a Marine during World War II, and he also served in the Korean War (according to Wikipedia), before launching a long-time career drawing popular cartoons. "In a doodler's style, they feature everymen beset by modern complexity," Wikipedia explains.  But in this book, Booth shows a different creature being beset by modern complexity - a chicken!

The cover of the book shows the chicken trying to drive a convertible. Its first drawing shows the chicken standing on a fence post - in red high heels. "Starlight dreamed of becoming a high-fashioned model in New York," explains the playful text by Harry Allard, adding that the chicken also considered being a model "in London, in Paris, or in Milan (which, she had learned, is a city located in northern Italy)." Allard describes the chicken's dream - which seems very unlikely.  But it's Booth who depicts her struggle, showing the derisive laughter from all the other chickens.

Will the chicken find fame - or just a way to be happy without it? The story nudges the chicken towards stardom with the appearance of a chicken fairy godmother.  The chicken lays an enormous egg, inside which is a red convertible. The chicken's wish was "to get out of this dump," and the fairy godmother is obliging.  Soon the chicken is flying off to Milan in a two-seater airplane, "where she lost not time in appearing in a fashion show as a top model."

Unfortunately, the crowd in Milan only laughs at the modeling chicken.  "Sheesh, these people are too dumb to recognize a truly great and beautiful chicken model," Starlight things to herself. So she flies back to the United States - but this time, not to her henhouse. She lands in a rural field in Connecticut, where the story takes an entirely different turn.

All the chicken wants to do now is to live in a big house with one million dollars. Unfortunately, her fairy godmother is on vacation, and the replacement godmother is granting other people's wishes by mistake. Instead of a house and a million dollars, the chicken gets an old spinning wheel, and a 1937 cathedral radio. I struggled to find the author's real message, but maybe it's that life can be unexpected.

And when wishes do start to come true, make sure you know what you really want!

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