“Waiting for Chicken Smith” is a picture book about summer, anticipation and making new discoveries.  As  a young boy waits patiently for his “summer time friend” to make an appearance at his beach house which sits nearby to the boy’s beach house, he dreams  of  all the fun things the two of them have done together  in summers’ past and will continue   on doing when Chicken Smith FINALLY arrives.  He even finds a special’ shell and leaves it on Chicken Smith’s stoop as a surprise for him. The young boy’s sister tries  to distract him by  interesting him in her   shell collection.  At first he  “pooh poohs’  the shells, and continues  to anxiously await the arrival of his friend,  Chicken.  However, as time goes on,  he is gradually pulled by  his sister to  join her  on  her  adventures.  Chicken and the young boy had always searched for whales together but had never actually seen a whale.   With luck  on their side, the young boy and his sister spy a whale cavorting in the sea.  The boy decides that maybe Chicken Smith will not show up this season after all. He thus begins to appreciate the company of his sister – to the point where he fetches the shell from Chicken Smith’s stoop and considers giving it to his sister for her collection.

A sweet, quiet story about childhood friendship, not giving up hopes and dreams but accepting the inevitability of change,  and in that,  discovering  joy.

The illustrations by David Mackintosh are bold, detailed and surprising!

Reviewed by Connie M. Smith, Breakwater School, Portland, ME