Lena the Chicken (But Really a Dinosaur!)

Illustrated by K-Fai Steele
Hardcover
$18.99 US
On sale Oct 28, 2025 | 56 Pages | 9781774880135

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Chicken Run meets Tiny T. Rex in this funny farmyard tale of a feisty chicken who is sure she is a dinosaur!


Includes a die-cut cover — and back matter about how chickens (and all other birds) are the living descendants of dinosaurs!


Lena lives in a chicken coop, and she looks a lot like a chicken. But deep down, she’s convinced that she’s a . . . DINOSAUR! She can feel it in her bones. Lena just doesn’t understand the scaredy chickens in her family, and they don't understand her either, with her ferociousness and big ideas. The people on the farm are also baffled . . . except for little Madeline, who thinks Lena has PERSONALITY. 

And then, when a dastardly weasel turns up and threatens the coop, Lena's fearful family chickens out AGAIN. It's up to Lena to unleash her inner dinosaur like never before — to save the coop and show this silly bunch of chickens how to stand up for themselves. And when Madeline's science fair project shows that chickens are the closest living relatives in the world to dinosaurs, Lena’s family finally starts to see that — holy hen house! — they are all dinosaurs too!
© Lia Grainger
LINDA BAILEY has written nearly forty books for children, including The Three Little Mittens, Carson Crosses Canada, Princesses Versus Dinosaurs and If You Happen to Have a Dinosaur. Her books have been translated into twenty languages and have won multiple awards such as the Ontario Blue Spruce and Silver Birch Awards, the California Young Reader Medal, the Georgia Children's Picturebook Award and the UK School Library Association Information Book Award. Linda has been honored for her exceptional body of work in children’s literature with the Vicky Metcalf Award. She lives in Vancouver, British Columbia. View titles by Linda Bailey
K-FAI STEELE is the author-illustrator of A Normal Pig and All Eyes on Ozzy! and has illustrated several other books. She has a forthcoming graphic novel with Kokila. She was a James Marshall Fellow at the University of Connecticut, a Brown Handler Writer in Residence at the San Francisco Public Library, and an Ezra Jack Keats/Kerlan Memorial Fellow at the University of Minnesota. Born in Charlton, Massachusetts, K-Fai now lives in Stockholm, Sweden. View titles by K-Fai Steele

About

Chicken Run meets Tiny T. Rex in this funny farmyard tale of a feisty chicken who is sure she is a dinosaur!


Includes a die-cut cover — and back matter about how chickens (and all other birds) are the living descendants of dinosaurs!


Lena lives in a chicken coop, and she looks a lot like a chicken. But deep down, she’s convinced that she’s a . . . DINOSAUR! She can feel it in her bones. Lena just doesn’t understand the scaredy chickens in her family, and they don't understand her either, with her ferociousness and big ideas. The people on the farm are also baffled . . . except for little Madeline, who thinks Lena has PERSONALITY. 

And then, when a dastardly weasel turns up and threatens the coop, Lena's fearful family chickens out AGAIN. It's up to Lena to unleash her inner dinosaur like never before — to save the coop and show this silly bunch of chickens how to stand up for themselves. And when Madeline's science fair project shows that chickens are the closest living relatives in the world to dinosaurs, Lena’s family finally starts to see that — holy hen house! — they are all dinosaurs too!

Author

© Lia Grainger
LINDA BAILEY has written nearly forty books for children, including The Three Little Mittens, Carson Crosses Canada, Princesses Versus Dinosaurs and If You Happen to Have a Dinosaur. Her books have been translated into twenty languages and have won multiple awards such as the Ontario Blue Spruce and Silver Birch Awards, the California Young Reader Medal, the Georgia Children's Picturebook Award and the UK School Library Association Information Book Award. Linda has been honored for her exceptional body of work in children’s literature with the Vicky Metcalf Award. She lives in Vancouver, British Columbia. View titles by Linda Bailey
K-FAI STEELE is the author-illustrator of A Normal Pig and All Eyes on Ozzy! and has illustrated several other books. She has a forthcoming graphic novel with Kokila. She was a James Marshall Fellow at the University of Connecticut, a Brown Handler Writer in Residence at the San Francisco Public Library, and an Ezra Jack Keats/Kerlan Memorial Fellow at the University of Minnesota. Born in Charlton, Massachusetts, K-Fai now lives in Stockholm, Sweden. View titles by K-Fai Steele

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