Lena the Chicken (but Really a Dinosaur!)

Convinced she’s descended from mighty dinosaurs, fierce fowl protagonist Lena is sure that her avian family is “a bunch of big chickens,” an opinion helped along by the advice they give: “Aim LOW and you’ll never be disappointed.” Of the farm’s human caretakers, only young Madeline, portrayed with dark hair and pink skin, appreciates Lena’s spirit: “She has PERSONALITY! I like her!” When a sneaky, magnificently whiskered weasel arrives and infiltrates the coop, Lena taps into something “way down deep inside her bones and DNA.” And as the spirits of dinosaur ancestors seem to swirl about her in pale blue hues, she goes full terrible lizard, unleashing a “KKRRAAAGGGHH!!” that both routs the predator and brings her fellow chickens around (“She really IS a dinosaur! She really IS!”). Lena is further vindicated when Madeline returns from school having learned that chickens are indeed “one of the closest living relatives in the WHOLE WORLD to a dinosaur.” Gloriously goofy pencil and watercolor illustrations by Steele (That Always Happens Sometimes) and theatrical dialogue from Bailey (Cinderella—with Dogs!) imbue Lena with delicious levels of gravitas across a triumphant, fully fleshed-out work that delivers important observations about honoring one’s nature. A contextualizing note concludes. Background characters are portrayed with various skin tones. Ages 3–7. (Oct.)