The Horn Book calls LENA THE CHICKEN (BUT REALLY A DINOSAUR!), illus. by K-Fai Steele, “hilarious” and “energetic” with “plenty of visual chuckles” in starred review

★ Lena the Chicken (but Really a Dinosaur!) by Linda Bailey; illus. by K-Fai Steele
Preschool, Primary Tundra 56 pp.
Pub date: 10/25

Sure, Lena has buff feathers, a red comb and wattle, and the manic, beady eyes that Steele (illustrator of the Lone Wolf series, rev. 7/25, and others) is so good at drawing. But Lena knows she is a dinosaur. This sets her apart from the other chickens in the coop, in hilarious scenes that juxtapose her essential dinosaur-ness against her relations’ chicken-hearted natures. “Have some GUMPTION!” she clucks in disgust as the other hens cringe away from a tiny kitten; “Aim LOW and you’ll never be disappointed,” the other chickens advise her. Bailey’s (The Three Little Mittens, rev. 11/23) wry narration is paced so it practically reads itself aloud. It’s embellished by Steele’s energetic pencil and watercolor cartoons, which incorporate dialogue in speech bubbles and offer plenty of visual chuckles. When a weasel with a “magnificent set of whiskers” threatens the farm, he’s silhouetted against the sky like a B-movie villain. Of course it’s Lena, harnessing “something ancient, something primeval,” to the rescue in a comedic sequence that sends the now-whiskerless weasel running and that will have little listeners giggling. The story could end there, but it doesn’t. The young human child of the farm comes home with a book on evolution, and Lena is thoroughly vindicated. This makes for rather a long coda, but Steele’s light touch keeps the pages turning. A concluding note provides further scientific basis for Lena’s conviction and recommends two nonfiction books on the dino-bird connection.