Little Hatchy Hen

Little Hatchy Hen
James Flora ~ Harcourt, Brace & World, 1969

Again, Flora heads back to the farm, but this time it is Grandma who is spinning the tall tale. As with all my Flora books, even though this is a largely crappy copy culled from a library in Oregon, I adore it and so does my boy. As with the crossover that occurs in so many of his books, the bird is question is previously mentioned in Grandpa's Farm and has a very magical ability indeed.

Did you ever hear about Grandma's Little Hatchy Hen? She was such a good hatcher that she could hatch anything you put in her nest. She hatched chickens, ducks, geese, turtles, bluebirds, and ostriches. When Grandma needed new clothes or a piano or a bicycle, Little Hatchy Hen would hatch them for her. When Grandpa's barn caught on fire, he didn't have enough hose to reach the barn. Little Hatchy Hen hatched a box of spaghetti into two hundred feet of fire hose.

As with all of god's creatures that are born with gifts, trouble soon follows when Big Bruno spirits the little hen away in the night to use for his own evil, money-making scheme. It seems Hatchy is meant to spend a life hatching other peoples dreams, until the fowl smartens up and hatches a dinosaur (of course!) who whisks her back to the farm and the loving arms of Grandma. Always a surrealist twist from this modern master of absurdity. Any and all of his books... awesome.

Also by:
Pishtosh Bullwash and Wimple
Kangaroo for Christmas
Stewed Goose
Great Green Turkey Creek Monster
Grandpa's Farm
Leopold the See-Through Crumbpicker
The Day the Cow Sneezed
Grandpa's Ghost Stories
Grandpa's Witched Up Christmas
My Friend Charlie
Sherwood Walks Home
The Fabulous Firework Family