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. Agnes at Redwood Farms finally writes back in a typo-filled letter to confirm that this chicken is unusual and that she belonged to Jim. She warns Sophie to protect Henrietta.

Sophie soon encounters a chicken thief, Sue Griegson, who comes to the Brown farm under the guise of searching for her lost chickens. Sophie hasn’t told her mom and dad about Henrietta, so she locks Henrietta up and avoids the conversation. However, she later catches Ms. Griegson trying to break into the chicken coop and chases her away. Sophie talks to the mailman about whether the dead can send and receive letters, since she’s been writing to two dead people lately.

Agnes sends Sophie the first lesson of her free chicken course to help Sophie get started. Sophie is ready for the challenges and responsibilities that come with poultry farming. When Sophie tells her parents about Henrietta, they want to contact Ms. Griegson, but Ms. O’Malley at the library sets them straight—Henrietta was one of Great-Uncle Jim’s chickens. He has several more scattered around somewhere. Sophie is excited that she gets to keep Henrietta, and she uses the chicken course lesson materials to prove to her parents that she’s responsible enough for it. Henrietta begins laying glass eggs.

Sophie spots Ms. Griegson with a shapeshifting chicken that can turn into a hawk. She worries that Ms. Griegson will use the hawk-chicken to hunt Sophie’s chicken. Sophie wonders why Agnes would sell such a chicken. She soon discovers another one of Great-Uncle Jim’s unusual chickens: a camouflaging chicken that becomes nearly invisible, whom Sophie names Chameleon. At the feed store, Sophie overhears Ms. Griegson being extremely helpful and worries that Ms. she might be a better caretaker for Great-Uncle Jim’s chickens.

Agnes sends the second poultry course lesson, and Sophie dutifully studies it. She also herds another unusual chicken, a lightning-fast chicken. Sophie names her Roadrunner. Chameleon lays a brown egg, so Sophie and her parents get to taste their first farm-fresh egg. They reminisce about Abuelita’s migas (an egg-based dish), but no one can read her handwriting to make the recipe now. Sophie plans to track down a migas recipe.

Sophie receives a call to retrieve another unusual chicken from a farm down the road. This chicken’s chicks turned a raccoon to stone after it killed a rooster in the flock. Chris, the boy who owned the rooster, is upset that his mom killed the chicks, but their powers were dangerous. Sophie worries that the chicken has powers, too, but Agnes assures her that it’s just the chicks and tells Sophie not to breed her.

Sophie tries to attend the 4-H club, a free club where kids can learn about farming, to make friends, but Ms. Griegson runs it, so she leaves. Sophie learns that Ms. Griegson is trying to buy Redwood Farm, but she’s confused because Agnes owns it. Sophie hangs out with Chris again, and Chris tells her about Great-Uncle Jim. Sophie feels weird that Chris knew him better than she did. They make comics and play on the tire swing. He tells her about poultry shows.

Sophie writes to Agnes several times, but Agnes stops writing back. Sophie wonders why. She hopes to see Agnes at the upcoming poultry show. Sophie finds a recipe for migas at the library and makes it for her family using her chickens’ fresh eggs. Everyone loves it, and Mom calls her side of the family to share the recipe.

Chris informs Sophie that Ms. Griegson has the remaining three chickens from Great-Uncle Jim’s flock locked away on her farm. He helps her find Ms. Griegson’s farm, but he won’t help her steal them back. He goes home to get ready for the poultry show. Sophie discovers that while she was away, Ms. Griegson stole the rest of her chickens. Sophie rescues them but has no way to get them home until Gregory, the mailman, comes along. He offers to help Sophie get the chickens to the poultry show since he’s going that direction. He recommends that Sophie take them so that the whole town will know that they’re hers in case someone tries to steal them. Sophie agrees.

Sophie presents her chickens to the town, understanding that they knew them as Jim’s chickens previously. She asks that they help her look after them because someone has been trying to steal them. The town rallies behind Sophie in front of Ms. Griegson, who backs down. Sophie and her parents make friends in the community.

The three new chickens are attracted to Sophie’s typewriter, and they type out a letter from Agnes, who explains that she’s dead. The chickens can see ghosts, and she’s trained them to hit the keys for her. She’s proud of Sophie. Ms. Griegson is a former employee of Redwood Farm, but Agnes doesn’t trust her. Agnes bestows Sophie with her estate and the care of her remaining unusual chickens. She says that Great-Uncle Jim is proud of Sophie, too. Sophie inherits Redwood Farm, and her parents support her poultry farming endeavor. Sophie receives a letter from another associate of Agnes’s, asking where to send the rest of the chickens.