Chicken Boy by Frances O’Roark Dowell is a YA fiction story about Tobin, a 7th grader who became neglected after his mother died. He has a good relationship with his grandmother who blames his father for her daughter’s death. He is pretty much withdrawn but finally makes a friend, Henry, who gets him interested in chickens. Raising chickens and having a friend helps him feel better about himself and his school work improves. He is put into a nice foster home when his grandmother calls social services to report the neglect on the part of the dad.
I learned some things about chickens by reading this book but I wasn’t all that impressed with it. I usually like family stories but there wasn’t enough character development to make me really feel like I knew this family. It seemed like there were loose ends and although he forgave his grandmother, other things seemed left unresolved. The book seemed to just stop.
Have you read this one? What did you think of it?
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