Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer

Kelly Jones’s 2015 middle-grade magical realism novel, Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer, is an epistolary novel that follows 12-year-old Sophie Brown as she adjusts to her family’s new rural life and begins her journey as a poultry farmer. Through Sophie’s journey, this novel explores themes of grief, legacy, responsibility, and community.

This study guide follows the First Yearling Edition 2016 paperback version of the novel.

Plot Summary

After 12-year-old Sophie Brown’s family moves to her late Great-Uncle Jim’s farm during a period of financial hardship, Sophie finds a flyer for unusual chickens at Redwood Farm and writes to them for a catalog. Sophie also writes to her late Abuelita to tell her about how the family is settling in and how different rural life is from her previous life in Los Angeles.

Sophie doesn’t hear back from Redwood Farm, but a chicken shows up on her property, seemingly feeling at home. Sophie sets up the overturned chicken coop and provides the new chicken, dubbed Henrietta, with food and water. She’s excited to have a chicken, but soon Henrietta starts making things levitate and locking the coop by herself. Sophie writes to her late Great-Uncle Jim to tell him about Henrietta.