The Woefield Poultry Collective (2011) - Plot & Excerpts
An unusual group of people end up living on a struggling farm in rural BC. Prudence, has inherited the farm from her distant uncle. Earl, has lived on the farm for years, and is almost as old as the buildings. Seth moves in when his mother kicks him out of their house across the street, and Sara ends up there when her parents go through some marital problems. The relationships between these people grow as they struggle to make the farm work.I picked this book up because the title was intriguing.I finished it because I liked the characters and the situations into which they threw themselves.I would recommend this book to Niral. This book would challenge her and I think she would find the interactions between the characters amusing. A slightly different spin (at least for me) on the city-girl-goes-country trope. Normally such plotline involves a woman tottering through cow manure in her Louboutains. I liked this because although Prudence is a city girl when she inherits her uncle’s farm she is all in for a green/farming lifestyle. Why, she can have her very own farmer’s market! Score! She is naively optimistic about the prospect and is basically a parody of those wanting to live off the grid, embrace green, etc. I believe this (the parody) is intentional. If you don’t read it as a satire she could come across as very silly.There are some terrific ancillary characters. Old man Earl, chicken-raiser Sara, Seth the burnout. The story is told from these folks’ viewpoints as well. There are some quietly hilarious parts to this (if that makes sense). One of my favorites as told by Seth:“When she ordered her mom to ‘go get the frizzles’ I thought she was asking for a snack. Then comes another cage, but instead of good-looking birds, out come these draggle-ass, used-Kleenex-looking chickens. It was awesome…I mean, those frizzles were a mess. They looked like something J. Lo wore five years ago on her Latin American tour dates. They looked like they’d been bleached and then put in the dryer on high for about thirty-six hours…they had this very dim expression on their faces, even for chickens.”This part delighted me for some reason. I thought this book was okay to start, I love, love, loved the middle, and then ending did not work for me at all. I was sad because halfway through I was so loving the characters, the setup, all of it, I was disappointed with the turn it took. Overall three stars but had so much more potential. I adored these characters and feel they got cheated in the end.
What do You think about The Woefield Poultry Collective (2011)?
I love her YA books, but this was incredibly disappointing. I could not quite identify why though.
—Skylar
Rarely do I laugh out loud while reading. i did during this book, ...often. Fun fun fun.
—Beth
Loved this book. I laughed out loud so many times. It is a perfect summer read.
—cynrue
Great little book. Gives new meaning to "family", not always blood makes family.
—akira
