Bailey, Linda. Lena the Chicken (But Really a Dinosaur). K-Fai Steele, Illus. Tundra, 10/2025. [56]pp. Picture Book. Trade $18.99. 978-1-77488-013-5. GRADES Preschool–3. OUTSTANDING.
Lena is a hands-on-hips, take-charge kind of chicken, misunderstood by her fellow chickens and most of the humans on her farm. One clue to Lena’s hidden depths is her die cut eye on the cover, which opens to reveal a surprise. Those depths come in handy when her coop, and her chicken-livered chicken friends, need rescuing. Delightful, comic, pencil and watercolor-wash illustrations use a mix of speech bubble and printed text to tell Lena’s triumphant tale. A denouement, and a page of back matter, provide factual underpinnings and additional reading that support Lena’s belief—she really is a dinosaur.
Melissa McAvoy—Retired