Book Giveaway: Chickens in Mittens by Adam Lehrhaupt

Adam Lehrhaupt has a new book, CHICKENS IN MITTENS and he has agreed to give away a copy to one lucky winner. All you have to do to get in the running is to leave a comment. Reblog, tweet, or talk about it on Facebook with a link and you will get additional chances to win. Just let me know the other things you did to share the good news, so I can put in the right amount of tickets in my basket for you. Check back to discover the winner.

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

Bundle up and join Zoey the chicken on a winter wonderland adventure!

When you have a pair of warm mittens and a great imagination, a snowy day is an invitation to explore and have fun. So Zoey the daring chicken and Sam the loyal pig are headed to the North Pole!

From the hilarious author-illustrator duo that brought you Chicken in Space and Chicken in School, this Level One I Can Read is perfect for children learning to sound out words and sentences.

BOOK’S JOURNEY:

Chicken in Mittens is the third book in my series about Zoey, a zany chicken with dreams, and her best pig, Sam. So, where did I get the idea? For that, we need to go back a few years. Is anyone else picturing the guys from Wayne’s World right now? Just me? OK. Moving on.

In 1932, my grandmother’s namesake gave her a copy of The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. She treasured it, and when I was younger, she would read it to me. The Baron was a larger than life character, with imagination enough to fill up volumes. I loved it. The boundless creativity. The wackiness. The improbable situations. I couldn’t get enough.

In 1995, upon my graduating college, my grandmother passed the book on to me. I still have it on my shelf above my desk. When I’m stuck for an idea, I take it down and read a bit.

What does this have to do with a wacky chicken? Glad you asked. Zoey’s character was, to a large extent, based on the Baron. She has an endless imagination. She never accepts that something might be impossible. And she drags all of her friends into her world with her. Sounds like a fun character, right?

It is! I love, LOVE, coming up with new and more interesting things for Zoey to do. In her first book, Chicken in Space, she and Sam went on an adventure to outer space. Well, to what Zoey considers outer space.

In their second adventure, Chicken in School, Zoey created a whole school for her friends. A whole, slightly bizarre school. At least there was pie.

In the newest adventure, they head to the North Pole. Why there? For the hot cocoa, right? Just kidding.
I usually start Zoey’s stories by asking what’s the craziest thing a chicken could do in a given situation.

But for this book, I actually came up with the title first. I loved the idea of Zoey and Sam wearing mittens. Not how a person would. But, how Zoey would. With that image in mind, I started brainstorming a situation.

The situation I landed on was, snow on the farm. Given the weather, a trip to the pole seemed perfectly up Zoey’s alley. Next I had to figure out who else would join in. Sam, of course. But would anyone else want to go? To the North Pole? In the cold. The wind. The snow. Yeah, no. So just the two of them.

After that, the story kind of wrote itself. No, really. After three books with these characters, I pretty much know what to expect from them. It’s really fun to put on their hats and see how they’ll react to new situations and this book was no exception. The best part about it was the…oh, wait. I can’t tell you. That would spoil it. Let’s just say that Sam’s afraid of something big and dangerous. And Zoey finds it.

Hope you like Chicken in Mittens, and keep your eyes out for their next adventure, Chicken on Vacation, summer 2018.

ADAM’S BIO:

Adam Lehrhaupt is the award-winning picture book author of Warning: Do Not Open This Book!, Please: Open This Book!, Chicken in Space (A six book HarperCollins series continuing with Chicken in School June 20, 2017), I Will Not Eat You and I Don’t Draw, I Color as well as the upcoming Wordplay (Scholastic, July 2017), This is a Good Story (S&S, September, 2017), Idea Jar (S&S, Spring 2018) and several more he is not yet at liberty to discuss. Among the awards his titles have won are the E.B. White Read-Aloud Honor, the Wanda Gag Read-Aloud Award and the Hudson Readers Thumbs Up Award. His books have also been honored among ALA notable books, Huffington Post notable books, CCBC Choices, Bank Street Choices, Ontario Library Association ‘Best Bets’ and more.

Adam has traveled to six continents, performed on Broadway, and lived on a communal farm. He firmly believes that opening a book is a good thing, even if there are monkeys in it. Adam currently lives in the suburbs of Philadelphia, PA, with his wife, two sons, and two bizarre dogs.

Follow Adam on Twitter or Instagram @Lehrhaupt and on Facebook @AdamLehrhaupt for the occasional brilliant thought or picture. He can also be found at http://www.adamlehrhaupt.com

Adam, thank you for sharing your book and its’ journey. I’m sure the winner will love adding this to their collection.

Remember: Adam is one of the Writing with the Stars mentors. Here is the link to read more about the free program.

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy