Sprout, when we first meet her, appears diseased and has been left for dead in a pile of chicken carcasses.

And I'm a mom with three kids and two adoption stories and here I am, unexpectedly meeting Sprout, a little hen who “had only one wish, to hatch an egg and watch the birth of a chick.” I blame The Bremen Town Musicians in my youth.īut, here's what's weird. I don't know why, but these stories have always worked for me. As I started it, I realized the pull was something more this was a story told in the spirit of Watership Down and Animal Farm meaning, a tale of animals that live together and communicate as humans do. I knew nothing about this book, other than it was translated into English from Korean lit. But as I walked on by, the little hen on the cover called out my name. I saw it in a book store, pictured the unread books in stacks next to my bed, and ignored it.

That's what happened with me and this skinny novel last week. Isn't it weird, how a book will sometimes speak to you from a book store or library, call your attention to it and demand that you take it home? And with its array of animal characters-the hen, the duck, the rooster, the dog, the weasel-it calls to mind such classics in English as Animal Farm and Charlotte’s Web.įeaturing specially-commissioned illustrations, this first English-language edition of Sun-mi Hwang’s fable for our times beautifully captures the journey of an unforgettable character in world literature. No longer content to lay eggs on command, only to have them carted off to the market, she glimpses her future every morning through the barn doors, where the other animals roam free, and comes up with a plan to escape into the wild-and to hatch an egg of her own.Īn anthem for freedom, individuality and motherhood featuring a plucky, spirited heroine who rebels against the tradition-bound world of the barnyard, The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly is a novel of universal resonance that also opens a window on Korea, where it has captivated millions of readers.

The hen who dreamed she could fly