37 pages • 1 hour read
Doreen CroninThe Trouble With Chickens
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2011A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 1-8Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “Chicken Breath”
J.J. Tully remembers the hot summer day when he first met Millicent, the chicken. J.J. found Millicent very strange-looking, with tiny black eyes close together and a “funny red comb” on her head (1). J.J. admits that chickens make him feel nervous, and he was particularly uncomfortable around Millicent because she seemed “crazy.”
Chapter 2 Summary: “Introductions”
.J. explains that his full name is Jonathan Joseph Tully and that he used to work as a search and rescue dog before his owner, Barb, decided to retire to the countryside. J.J. reveals that he does not like living in the country where he does not have any interesting work to do. He is especially annoyed with the chicken Millicent, who he calls Moosh, and her chicks Little Boo and Peep, who he calls Dirt and Sugar. Moosh wants J.J.’s help with a problem and promises to pay him with a cheeseburger.
Chapter 3 Summary: “Chicken Missing”
Moosh walks back and forth across J.J.’s yard. J.J. notices that something isn’t right with Moosh’s family when he sees the two chicks trailing behind her. Dirt and Sugar irritate him because the little chicks are always getting into mischief. Sugar reveals that her siblings, Poppy and Sweetie, are missing.
Chapter 4 Summary: “Poppy and Sweetie”
J.J. visits the outskirts of the chicken coop, the last place Moosh saw Poppy and Sweetie. Since he has no experience tracking chickens and he has very little of their scent to work with, he thinks he has a low probability of detection or POD. However, he keeps this a secret to avoid upsetting Moosh.
J.J. is annoyed that he has to begin his search in hot weather surrounded by irritating chickens. He explains to Moosh that the conditions are not very good, but he’ll try his best. J.J. begins sniffing around and follows a faint scent trail, but then it begins to rain. While Sugar rudely urges him to keep looking, J.J. calls off the search and returns to his doghouse.
Chapter 5 Summary: “Chicken Scratch”
Dirt and Sugar bother J.J., who has returned to his doghouse and wants to rest. They ask him to continue looking for Poppy and Sweetie. Moosh reappears with a note that she found in her chicken coop. The writer of the note claimed to have the chicks and asked Moosh to meet with them that evening at the coop. J.J. realized that the writer must be very quick and have a big vocabulary.
Chapter 6 Summary: “Chicken Tears”
Moosh is hesitant to give up the ransom note, and J.J. follows her to get it. Moosh and J.J. have a staring contest until Moosh begins to cry and drops the note. J.J. gives it a sniff and smells the same chicken smell he identified before the rainstorm. He is determined to follow its trail.
Chapter 7 Summary: “Inside Job”
J.J. thinks about the fancy words the writer used in their ransom note, and he is convinced that, even though it smells like Poppy and Sweetie, they could not have written it. J.J. thinks that the writer of the note must be educated and have a comfortable life, so he guesses that it is an indoor pet. While Moosh doesn’t understand the note, her chick, Sugar, who is very intelligent, does. The chickens and J.J. agree to meet at the coop at 6:30 that evening to see what happens.
Chapter 8 Summary: “Detour”
J.J. and Moosh wake up Dirt and Sugar, who are napping in J.J.’s food bowl. Together, they walk to the chicken coop, but J.J. has a strong hunch that he should hang behind and watch the meeting from a distance. J.J. remembers a time when he did not listen to his hunch and ate a bad sandwich. He was hospitalized with food poisoning, and ever since then, he always listens to his intuition.
As J.J. looks for a place to hide, the same smell that he found on the note overwhelms him. This time, the smell led to the house. J.J. shares his news with Moosh, who doesn’t believe him. Suddenly, they both see a shadow in the house’s window. J.J. recognizes it as “Vince the Funnel.”
Chapters 1-8 Analysis
In the first chapters of The Trouble With Chickens, author Doreen Cronin introduces her protagonist, former rescue dog J.J. Tully. By telling the story from J.J.’s perspective, Cronin introduces his point of view and two main problems: tolerating his annoying chicken neighbors and solving the puzzling mystery of their missing chicks.
J.J.’s history as a rescue dog makes him a sympathetic main character. His career of rescuing humans means that he is very intelligent and bored by farm life in the quiet countryside. The author characterizes J.J. as being a brave and very competent rescue dog who excels at saving humans in wild conditions. J.J. explains, “I’ve been lowered from a helicopter, strapped to a snowmobile, and flown first-class to France to find a backcountry skier lost in the Alps” (27). The author contrasts J.J.’s previous professional adventures with the boredom and mundane everyday issues of his current life on the farm, namely the annoying chicken who won’t get out of his yard. J.J.’s experience establishes the theme of Purpose and Belonging. Without the thrill of his previous work as a rescue dog, J.J. is bored, waiting for something exciting to come his way. The mystery of the missing chicks presents just the opportunity for J.J. to feel his sense of purpose renewed.
The author’s descriptions add to the story’s humor as she details the characters and setting from J.J.’s perspective. For instance, she describes Millicent, or “Moosh,” as a strange-looking bird: “She was a short, tired-looking bird with a funny red comb on her head. It looked about as useful to her as a spoon is to a snake. Her eyes were tiny and black and set so close to each other that they practically touched. I’d be surprised if the right eye could report back seeing anything other than the left eye” (1). J.J.’s view of the chicks, Dirt and Sugar, combines vivid imagery with humor: “They were half yellow, half white, like fuzzy popcorn kernels with feet. They were new enough to this world to be spitting up eggshell” (11). J.J.’s description of the setting is largely informed by his sense of smell. As J.J. follows the scent trail, he describes the farmland setting where he lives: “Bare feet. Barbecue sauce. Blueberries. It didn’t take long to pick up what I thought was a chicken trail. I followed it around the edge of the yard, under a pile of rotting wood, past the barn, and then across the open field” (15).
While J.J. is bitter about his boring life on the farm and his constantly irritating neighbors, he does extend kindness to the chickens and recognizes that they have some positive personality traits as well. For instance, he believes that Moosh is “tough” since she isn’t easily startled by loud noises such as ringing phones, backfiring cars, or blenders. J.J. also recognizes that Sugar, the chick, is very gutsy and intelligent. Sugar impresses J.J. with her determination to find her siblings, even pushing him to continue searching for them in the rainstorm, which shows her toughness. Sugar even understands the ransom note, prompting J.J. to recognize her intelligence: “Sugar’s head wasn’t filled with feathers, that’s for sure” (29). J.J.’s reluctant kindness and tolerance of the chickens make him a likable character and add humor to the story.
In these chapters, the author also establishes the theme of Approaches to Problem-Solving. When J.J. is confronted with the mystery of the missing chicks, he has to logically follow clues to understand more about the situation. Using his rescue dog training, J.J. first visits the scene of the crime and identifies a scent to track. J.J. also uses his logic to make inferences about the author of the ransom note. By identifying vocabulary such as “behoove” and “rendezvous” as “inside words,” J.J. narrows his scope of suspects and makes the educated guess that the note’s author is an indoor animal. However, J.J. also relies on his intuition. He insists to Moosh that he must follow his gut feeling and lay low during the meeting in a hiding place. J.J. reveals he must listen to his intuition because he has ignored it before and suffered the consequences. Following J.J.’s problem-solving strategies demonstrates his dedication to the mission and adds tension to the unfolding plot.
