Book excerpt: Welcome to Horse Island, where knowing about chickens is the key to popularity and eggs are more valuable than money. This is where eleven-year-old Don Schmidt lives on a chicken farm with his parents. He is sort of unpopular, both at home (where his mother refers nonstop to his talented, dancing, dead sister, Dawn) and at school (where the other kids call him “new kid” even though he's been at the school for several years).With nowhere else to turn, Don begins a friendship with the chickens that live outside his window on the family's farm. Then one day, Don enters the chicken-judging contest at the local dairy festival and becomes the youngest person in history ever to win. This spurs a dramatic chain of events that makes Don the most popular kid in town. But it also leads him to discover that his parents have been hiding family secrets. Jacques Couvillon has created a refreshing story with a character who is charming, sincere, and just so funny. The Chicken Dance is an entertaining page-turner that readers will not want to put down.