Tic-Tac-Toe Chicken

"I loved reading this story inspired by the real Tic-Tac-Toe Chicken of Chinatown!  Kids will be encouraged to seek clever solutions for the problems they see being ignored."  
—Grace Lin, award-winning author of A Big Mooncake for Little Star and Where the Mountain Meets the Moon

"An imaginative retelling of a true story, Tic-Tac-Toe Chicken is something to squawk about!"
—Elana K. Arnold, author of the National Book Award finalist What Girls Are Made Of and the A Boy Called Bat series

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.

• Publication date: 2 October 2025
• Page count: 32
• Dimensions: Height 236 mm; Width 274 mm; Thickness 9 mm
• Publisher: Third State Books Inc.
• Format: Hardback
• ISBN-13: 9798890130297