The Great Chicken Debacle
by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Why You Will Enjoy The Great Chicken Debacle

In The Great Chicken Debacle Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, Newbery Award Winning Author of Shiloh has created a very humorous chapter book for ages 8 and up. What is particularly refreshing about The Great Chicken Debacle is the Delaney family. The dad and mom enjoy playing tricks on one another, giving one another crazy birthday gifts---thus the idea of giving a chicken as a birthday present. The children enjoy this trait of their parents and participate in the planning. The children have chores that they just do. Ms. Naylor makes "helping parents" a given. The parents also enjoy their children and are willing to give them lattitude. This book had lots of humorous moments and lots of times when you will realize, "this family really has fun together."

Synopsis

School is out for the summer and the Morgan children, Cornelia, Charles, and Mindy want their dad to take them to Starlight Park, the local amusement park. They make a bargain with their amusement park-adverse dad. They will take charge of the chicken dad has bought mom as a secret birthday present if he will take them to Starlight Park on the day after mom's birthday. This bargain proves to be one big debacle!

Description

This is a humorously told story about the adventures the Morgan children and their neighborhood friend, Deeter Delaney, have with a chicken. The chicken escapes and nearly gets hit by a car; it is stalked by a fox. It is stolen by the Skoates gang; it is almost whisked away by a tornado. The book is divided into 16 adventure chapters. Each chapter is six or seven pages in length---perfect for bedtime reading. The story is set in Illinois, present day. There are some references to Illinois locations or events.