Lami, a small girl who lives with her extended family in an African compound brimming with activity, is known as an expert chicken catcher. Happily, there are many chickens all around the compound for her to chase after. She uses her speed and skill to run after one particularly wily chicken, chasing it right up a baobab tree, only to fall as she reaches for it. Even laid up with a swollen ankle, Lami is still able to catch the chicken after thinking of a way to make the chicken come to her. Colorful mixed-media illustrations are filled with small details of the busy compound as Lami and the chicken wend their way through scenes such as older children in an outdoor classroom, women cooking food and hanging laundry on the line, and big boys caring for cattle in a bullpen. Repeated phrases in the perfectly paced, patterned text, will make this a great choice for reading aloud to young children. While the story's cultural setting is not specified, author Atinuke grew up in Nigeria. (Ages 2-5)

There are many chickens in the compound where Lami lives, and she is the best chicken catcher. That is, until she chases a chicken up the baobab tree, falls, and sprains her ankle. With a little critical thinking, Lami is able to get the chicken to come to her! The mostly brown and textured earthen environment, large and gnarled baobab tree, and the multi-colored and patterned clothing of the villagers establish a sense of place. Lami holds an object in the final images, which solves the question of how she was cleverly able to tempt the distinctive black-and-white chicken.

This book is on the 2021 USBBY Outstanding International Books list, and Cooperative Children's Book Center Choices Book List.

Author was born in Nigera and lives in Wales. Illustrator lives in London.

Great Britain. Originally published in Great Britain as Catch That Chicken! by Walker in 2020. Published in the United States by Candlewick in 2020.

The team behind Baby Goes to Market and B Is for Baby visit a Nigerian village for a humorous ode to childhood ingenuity.

Lami is the best chicken catcher in the whole village. Her sister may be speedy at spelling, her friend fast at braiding hair, and her brother brave with bulls, but when it comes to chickens, nobody is faster or braver than Lami. That is, until the day when Lami chases a little too fast, up the baobab tree, and reaches a little too far . . . ow! How can she catch chickens with an ankle that’s puffed up like an angry lizard? Could it be, as Nana Nadia says, that quick thinking is more important than quick running? Award-winning author Atinuke celebrates Nigerian village life in a story vibrantly illustrated by Angela Brooksbank with a universal message at its heart.