Everyone will be cheering for Don Schmidt in this achingly funny debut

Don Schmidt lives on a chicken farm in Horse Island, Louisiana, where his mom keeps chickens not so much for the eggs as for the "ambience." Don loves the chickens more than anything or anybody. He doesn't really have friends, and his older sister died when he was little. But how can he forget his sister, Dawn, when his mother never stops talking about what a great dancer she was? One day, Don enters a contest and wins first place for chicken judging. Even though his parents don't notice his achievement, everyone else in town does. Still, Don's blue ribbon can hardly compete with Dawn's ballet trophy.

At home, Don finds some canceled checks for a private detective and a birth certificate with his birthday on it-but with a different person's name. Are secrets about his dead sister are being kept from him? Slowly he realizes what his parents have been telling him may not be true.

The Chicken Dance is a laugh-out-loud journey that takes readers to the place where comedy and tragedy meet. Every family has secrets, and life is rarely fair, but in this unforgettable debut by Jacques Couvillon, everyone gets what they deserve.