by Moe Zilla

Created on: August 07, 2010

Kate DiCamillo wrote "Because of Winn-Dixie," and won a Newberry medal for "The Tale of Despereaux." But in 2008, she returned to the world of children's picture books for a beautifully-illustrated story with an unlikely title: "Louise, The Adventures of a Chicken." Throughout the story, the adventurous hen seems to wander into every possible kind of story. But when the book opens, the hen has decided to go to sea, and is standing on the deck of an old-fashioned sailing ship, as the wind ruffles through he feathers.

Sure enough, pirates attack - and there's a spectacular two-page drawing of the vicious pirates boarding the ship. One of them clutches the struggling chicken in his hand, and soon the entire gang of pirates is debating the best way to cook a chicken. But fortunately, a huge storm arrives which sinks both ships - while the chicken escapes by clinging to a piece of timber. There's a spooky drawing of one last pirate, who says "fricasseed" before he "disappeared into the mysterious ocean depths." After seven days at sea, the hen paddles her way to shore - and then hops all the way back to the farm where she used to live!

Describing the story doesn't really capture the comic magnificence of its illustrations. Harry Bliss is already a syndicated cartoonist, and he was the illustrator behind Doreen Cronin's "Diary of a Worm," (and it's sequels, "Diary of a Spider," and "Diary of a Fly.") He's drawn cover illustrations for the New Yorker, according to the book's jacket, and some of his drawings in this book have that same simple-yet-sophisticated style. In some cases, it seems like he's drawn a lushly detailed and shadowed image for the drawing's realistic background - and then added in the cartoonish chicken for comic effect!

Back on the farm, Louise "slept the deep and dreamless sleep of the true adventurer," but as chapter two begins, the chicken joins the circus. (The book is actually divided into four chapters, though it's really just a longer-than-usual children's picture book.) The brave chicken is bored with the routine of performing the dangerous high-wire act - but then a lion escapes from its cage. The chicken falls towards its mouth, but at the last second flaps its way to safety - and ends up nestled under the hat of a circus clown. And then the book's funny pattern repeats itself one more time.

"Safe in the clown's wig, hidden beneath his hat, Louise thought of the hen house and what a quiet, spectacularly lion-free place it was..."

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