Tic-Tac-Toe Chicken

Third State Books is founded by Stephanie Lim and Charles Kim. The publishing house focuses on Asian American voices and stories.

New York City is not a great place for a chicken to live. It's crowded and loud and busy. But you can find the city's most famous chicken, Lillie, a.k.a. the Tic-Tac-Toe Chicken, in Chinatown.

When tourists ask, "Where's the Tic-Tac-Toe Chicken?" locals point them to a video-game arcade on Mott Street, where Lillie plays games of tic-tac-toe against anyone who wants to play against her.

But eight-year-old Beatrice worries that the dark arcade is just not a good place for Lillie to live. She devises a clever plan: She will challenge the arcade's Big Boss in a game of tic-tac-toe. Will Beatrice win Lillie's freedom?

Tic-Tac-Toe Chicken is a picture book inspired by the true story of Lillie, a real chicken trained to play tic-tac-toe in New York's Chinatown Fair arcade, and her relocation to a farm for rescued animals. Featuring vibrant paintings of Chinatown by the award-winning illustrator Louie Chin (Bodega Cat, Fighting to Belong! Vols. I and II), Tic-Tac-Toe Chicken showcases a local cultural touchstone and shows how children can stand up for what they believe in and solve tough problems with ingenuity and heart.