Gwen the Rescue Hen

Winner of a prestigious Northern Lights Book Award, Gwen the Rescue Hen is the heart-warming story about a sharp-witted chicken that inspires compassion for animals.Gwen has spent her whole life in a big egg-laying hen house, so she knows very little about what chickens can do (besides lay eggs, of course). A fateful tornado turns her world upside-down and sideways, landing her in a strange new place that's nothing like the hen house.Using her wits and chicken superpowers, Gwen dodges danger at every turn until she finds safety and friendship with a boy named Mateo. Together they discover how extraordinary an ordinary chicken really is.The book includes a bonus section called More About Chickens, where curious readers can learn that chickens have extraordinary eyesight, a complex language of 24 sounds, and are descended from dinosaurs, among other fun facts about chickens. Ages: 4 to 7Recognition2020 Winner of the Northern Lights Book Award Honoring “Children’s Literature of Exceptional Merit”Gwen is displayed in the California governor’s mansion in Sacramento, CA, and part of the State Library’s permanent collection.Teach Heart, which designs Humane Education curriculums for teachers, has named Gwen to its recommended book list.Named to seven “best books for kids” listsPart of a Texas school district’s curriculum on where our food comes from

Raise Vegan— "Another compelling title by children’s book author Leslie Crawford, Gwen the Rescue Hen is a treat for the heart and the eyes alike. This uplifting story follows a very special hen as she escapes industrial agriculture to her eventual meeting of Mateo, a compassionate kid who comes to be her closest friend. Smashing boundaries between human and nonhuman animals, this book is a true heart opener for anyone with a soft spot for our furry and feathered friends.", Kirkus Reviews– Chickens in a factory farm get an unexpected chance at a better life. Crammed into a tiny cage, with hardly any room to move, Hen longs to stretch her wings and fly. But like the other chickens in the cages that line the pitch-black barn, she is part of an egg farm, so the only flying she can do is in her dreams. Suddenly a roaring sound fills the air ("HOWOOOOH!"). A tornado rips the roof off of the barn ("KABOOM!") and takes Hen's cage swirling with it. When she touches down ("CLONK!"), she is amazed to see a world of color and tasty grass. But there are also new dangers to fear: barking dogs and zooming motorcycles. Luckily she meets Mateo, a tan-skinned, brown-haired boy who has a penchant for chickens. Mateo renames Hen "Gwen" and learns to care for her and her friends, whom he finds and brings home. Readers will happily learn along with Mateo, using the intriguing list of chicken facts appended at the end. Stangl's teardrop-shaped fowl further endear as they peer out from the pages with big eyes and bobbling bodies. With a light touch (and much onomatopoeia), Crawford offers compassion and insight on farm-animal rescues. (Picture book. 4-8), "In telling these heartwarming tales of resilience, compassion and love, Crawford avoids the more brutal realities of factory farming, showing simply that these farms are extremely unhappy places for such intelligent and emotional beings. She focuses instead on how truly wonderful these overlooked and poorly treated animals are—that they're way more than just bacon and nuggets."—Reynard Loki, Ecowatch, "A gentle first entry into animal rights that will inspire young readers to think critically about the meat we consume and how farm animals are treated."—School Library Journal, "Gwen shows children, and adults that "happily ever after" is a real thing—and making it happen can be as simple as letting chickens live like chickens."—Randy Graham

A journalist and editor for more than twenty years, Leslie Crawford has primarily written about health and education. It was thanks to her 12-year-old daughter Molly, who has never met an animal she doesn’t like, that Leslie developed an interest in writing about animals. Leslie lives in San Francisco with her six chickens, four foster pigeons, and a bearded dragon lizard named Georgia. Sonja Stangl is an artist and illustrator from Austria. She studied multimedia art in Salzburg and now lives and works in Vienna, where she happily illustrates stories for books and animation.