Louise, The Adventures of a Chicken
by Kate Dicamillo, Model HarperCollinsAverage Rating: 
List Price: $17.99 / Sale Price: $12.23
From the Editors
<p>She longed for adventure. </p> <p>So she left her home and ventured out into the wide world.</p> <p>The pleasures and perils she met proved plentiful: marauding pirates on the majestic seas, a ferocious lion under the bright lights of the big top, a mysterious stranger in an exotic and bustling bazaar.</p> <p>Yet in the face of such daunting danger, our heroine . . .</p> <p>She was brave.</p> <p>She was fearless.</p> <p>She was feathered.</p> <p>She was a chicken.</p> <p>A not-so-chicken chicken.</p> <p>Her name?</p>
Product Description
Customer Response
What a disappointment!
I have been a huge DiCamillo fan for many years but, Louise, The Adventures of a Chicken is a huge disappointment. The book reads like a choppy, dry, disjointed work produced by a middle schooler. Please stick to your beautiful and well-developed chapter books, Ms. DiCamillo.
A goofy book
Reviewed by Simon Smith (age 9) for Reader Views (10/08)
I think you would really enjoy this book because it is a unique story. It is a large picture book with small but exciting chapters. The endpapers have a beautiful gold and white plant design. The artwork is very good and looks half realistic--faces are one of the artist's strengths.
Louise has three adventures: one at sea with pirates, one in the circus, and one in India. In chapter two, which is called "Louise Up High," Louise sneaks off to the circus and gets a job as a tightrope walker. While she is walking the wire, she almost falls into a lion's mouth, but flaps away just before it eats her. Then she hides in a clown's hat until it is safe.
One interesting thing is that in the middle of the book the author put the book sideways because the scene was so high when Louise was on the high wire. The book ends with Louise back at home telling all of the other chickens about her adventures. The book teaches that you think adventures are fun before they happen, but when they happen, they actually aren't. Louise almost gets eaten in each adventure but somehow escapes. I think the final adventure put an end to her wanting to have adventures because she was able to help other chickens to be free.
The back cover of the book has a quote from Emily Dickinson saying, "Hope is the thing with feathers . . ." I think the author put that there because it means that Louise had hope enough to get her home. I really liked this book because the artwork really catches your eye and the story drifts you in as if it were real life. Louise is crazy to go on all of these adventures. A good audience for this book would be boys and girls, ages four and up, and any kind of kid who likes adventures and made-up stories.
My favorite part of the book was when Louise is in the clown's hat, hiding from a lion. "Louise, The Adventures of a Chicken" by Kate DiCamillo is so good that I wouldn't change anything. even if I could.
A Kate DiCamillo Book for Younger Children
In this book Kate DiCamillo -- Newbery Winner and National Book Award finalist -- joins forces with Harry Bliss -- award winning illustrator of "Diary of a Worm" and the New Yorker magazine-- to produce a lighthearted book about a hen that longs for adventure, and gets it!
Those familiar with Kate DiCamillo know that while her books appear to be fables for young children, that they often have a dark side that makes them better targeted to the middle school and up crowd. With "Louise" however, there was only one grim moment, where a pirate was sucked down into the ocean, and it was handled well enough that I had no problem reading this book to my 6 year old son and his older sister.
As for the message, I would say that there were two. The first is that while adventure is exciting and interesting, that it is equally wonderful to be safe at home with your family and friends. The second message is not going to be something that children as young as mine are going to fully understand: it's the assertion that reading and hearing about an adventure is as good as living it.
4.5 Stars. My children LOVED this book. They thought the story was great, and they howled with laughter at some of Louise' antics; although there are assuredly some references, like the one to Bogart and the African Queen, that only adults will get.
Pam T~
mom and reviewer for BooksforKids-Reviews.com
She longed for adventure.
When you're young, it still feels like anything can and might happen to you. Adventures peek out from under the horizon, big and fantastical ones that could make you feel more in control of your own destiny, more seasoned as a person, or like you're having more fun than you would be just sitting at home.
Louise is like that. She's a chicken who wants to experience "true adventure" and leaves home to discover what it really is. Her adventures are familiar in theory (pirates, the circus, faraway lands) and yet full of the unexpected when actually realized. There are dark moments and funny ones, often on the same page and in both the text and illustrations. The reader is privy to an understated version of the emotions and thoughts that run through Louise's mind as she seeks out "true adventure". Without a lot of exclamation points and hardly any exposition, Louise's story is quietly satisfying.
Stick with writing chapter books
After Edward Tulane, DiCamillo's work has not been that great. Like she's in a churning-it-out slump. DiCamillo's been aided by wonderful illustrators for her picture books, but Louise (like Great Joy and the Mercy Watson series) is not the best picture book that has ever come along. After being on display in my school library for over a week, it still hasn't been checked out. Edward and Despereaux have been checked out. Stick with writing books of substance with characters of substance, like Edward, and Despereaux, and Winn-Dixie, and Tiger Rising. There's a reason why some of those books are award-winning books and the picture books are not.
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