#tbt: Chicken Boy by Frances O'Roark Dowell

Image: Simon & Schuster

Chicken Boy by Frances O'Roark Dowell. 202 p. Atheneum Books for Young Readers/ Simon & Schuster, 2005. 9780689858167. (Own.)

#tbt features Chicken Boy by Frances O'Roark Dowell. Published in 2005, this first-person narrative by Tobin McCauley opens with one of the more memorable first lines in children's literature. "You might have heard about the time my granny got arrested on the first day of school." Tobin lives in a dysfunctional family. His father never really recovered from the death of his wife and his older siblings have a bad reputation in town as delinquents. Tobin flies mostly under the radar, preferring not to call attention to himself. At turns hilarious and heartbreaking, Chicken Boy is one of my favorites. While the cover I found on the publisher website is fine, I prefer the cover of my first edition book.