Author: Evelyn Coleman
Illustrator: Tyrone Geter
Genre: Picture Book
Subgenre: Realistic Nonfiction
Theme: Discrimination and Racism
Primary/Secondary Characters: Grandma, Young Girl, Chicken Man, Big White Man
Date of Publication: Year 1996
Publishing Company: Albert Whitman and Company
Summary: A young girl asked her Grandmother is she could go into town by herself, when in turn her grandmother told her a story from her childhood. She had gone into town alone, with 2 eggs in her pocket. She had passed the house of the well-known "Chicken Man" who was known to do great things, and nobody ever dared to mess around with him. She made it into town, and decided to test to see if eggs could really fry on the hot pavement, and they did. She was ever so hot, and decided to take a drink of water at the drinking fountain, yet it had a sign on it that read "whites only." Not knowing any better, she took off her black shes and exposed her white socks, and began to drink. A big white man came over and shoved her off and began to beat her, when more black people approached and started drinking from the fountain. More white people showed up and the big white man began beating the black people with his belt. At this time. the Chicken Man pushed through the crowd and drank from the water fountain, and all of the uproar grew silent and everyone left. He helped her back up, gave her a chicken feather from his hat, and took her back to her house. The sign on the fountain was then removed, and never appeared ever again. This book can be used in a classroom when teaching students about racism and discrimination. Children need to learn about how strong discrimination was in the past, and how some still exists today. They will become more familiar with how blacks felt at that time, as the viewpoint of the story is told by an elder black lady with a loving granddaughter.
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