The Surprise Family

by Lynn Reiser

A baby chicken accepts a young boy as her mother and later becomes a surrogate mother for some ducklings that she has hatched

Genres: Picture Books

32 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1994

Reviews

[Kianna Buckner]

"The Surprise Family" by Lynn Reiser was a great book. It is about a boy who has a hen.They get little lonely so the boy gives the hen some eggs so that they can have chicks. The chicks came out of their eggs and the hen had a little family. One day the chicks went swimming in the pond and that day she realized that they were ducks. She still loved and treated them the same.
I think children in grades K-3 would enjoy this book. I think kids with pets would connect with this book because the hen would always follow the boy around and I know a lot of kids have pets at home that do the same. I loved how the author stated that the hen still loved the ducks the same when she found out they were ducks because it will teach kids or give them an idea of how they should always love their family and important people in their life no matter what.
I loved how on some pages, there would be about fours illustrations in a boxed form with the text by them. I think that was a good way to express the text. The page that I loved the most was how the illustrator had the hen across both pages and it was about 10 hens and "Hawk" was coming out of each mouth. I liked that because it should how the hen was doing her "danger dance". I also liked how the front and back cover page was the pattern of the quilt that the hen used in the story.

[Cole Hoffman]

This is a great book that promotes diversity. In today's world family is no longer decided by blood, but by but by who is there for you through thick and thin. As stated in the story, just because "The boy was not the kind of mother the chick had expected," does not mean that the boy is not the mother that the chick needed.
I would recommend this book to any school, family, or youth center trying to teach diversity to children. It is a heart warming story that can teach kids from a young age that no matter their, or their peers, home life has to offer, as long as they have a guardian that loves them that is all that matters.

[Emerson School Library]

I love this story for K-3 read-alouds. Ties in perfectly to CA curriculum about diverse families (1st grade standard) and touches on so many pieces of family discussions, including adoption, difference, gender roles and stereotypes.

[Esther]

Cute story and pics but only loosely related to adoption (why it gets only the 2 stars). Although some application could be made to an adoptive family's circumstances.

[Little Miss and the Legomeister]

They "were not the kind of family she had expected, but she loved them anyway."

This is a beautiful, unusual story about unconditional love and families. It's a pleasure to read.