Lena the Chicken (But Really a Dinosaur)

A very clever and funny story about chickens and ancestry, Lena the Chicken (But Really a Dinosaur) by Linda Bailey and K-Fai Steele educates readers on the oldest living descendants of the dinosaurs.

Lena was a dinosaur, she knew it in her bones. Even though she spent her time eating chicken feed and living among the chickens, she was convinced she was a dinosaur. The other chickens and even the farm people were really confused by Lena however, one night, when a weasel entered the chicken coop, Lena channeled her roots and got rid of that weasel in the most spectacular way, convincing the other chickens to be less chicken. Turns out, they are all dinosaurs!

Linda Bailey is one of our favourite authors! She has an innate ability to take the ordinary and make it hilarious, cute and clever. In this story, she takes a fun little bit of trivia and turns it into a wacky and fun story that will captivate readers and keep them asking for this story over and over again. 

Adults! If you are reading this story to a group of children, please practice reading it ahead of time because you will have a group of little readers in wrapped silence until they burst into laughter! For the adults reading to children, this is such a FUN story to read aloud! 

Many readers will already know that chickens are dinosaurs but for those who don’t yet know that delightful bit of trivia, their minds will be blown. For those who need proof, there is a wonderful author's note at the end of the book with all the information about how birds are related to dinosaurs and she has even included a couple nonfiction books to explore as well!

K-Fai Steele’s illustrations perfectly match the energy of the story. They are big, bold, colourful and perfectly chaotic, just like Lena. I love how they have incorporated speech bubbles to add to the details in the story and how intense all of the chicken are throughout the story.