by Moe Zilla

Created on: May 01, 2010

There's an interesting second story behind "Daisy Comes Home." It was 2002, and author-illustrator Jan Brett had traveled with her son and daughter-in-law Yun to the Chinese mainland where Yun was born. Brett saw fishermen and cormorants, and "As they sailed down the Li River in the Guang Xi Province, Jan was reminded of a favorite story from her childhood, The Story of Ping." According to the book's jacket, Brett was also impressed by the colorful markets she saw, along with towering mountains with unusual shapes - and the brightly-dressed children.

She combined them all into her first story set in China, adding one more personal detail. Jan Brett keeps hens as pets - and in her story, so does a little girl named Mei Mei! "Look over the garden wall and you will see the six happiest hens in China," the story begins. "Once upon a time the smallest hen...was picked on by all the others."

The story reveals that Mei Mei was famous throughout the land for her happy hens, even painting their baskets with the words "Happy Hens." But at night in their roost all the other hens gang up against a poor hen named Daisy. They crowd her off the perch until she's forced to sleep on the damp muddy floor of the henhouse. One rainy night, Daisy huffs off to a market basket by the river, and curls inside it for a good night's sleep. The river rises in the night, and carries the basket (and Daisy) away to new strange town down the river.

The illustrations are very pretty, and it's easy to imagine the magical shapes that Brett must've seen on her tour of China. But there's lots of animals that aren't altogether friendly to Daisy. There's a dog on a houseboat that barks at the hen, prompting her to flap her wings, which returns the basket to the river. And the next time the basket runs ashore, it's between the legs of an enormous water buffalo!

My favorite picture shows a troop of red-tailed monkeys who curiously poke at Daisy's nest. But there's a second set of illustrations in one corner of each page. This is a Jan Brett tradition, always giving readers a special glimpse at the book's other characters. While Daisy is busy floating down the river, Mei Mei is waking up at her farmhouse, wondering where her poor little hen has gone!

But in the end, the hen's river adventures have taught her to stand up for herself whenever the other hens try bother her!

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