Maddie The Brave Chook

• Madlen Jones, Grade 4
• Short Story
• 2007

Once there was a chook named Maddie. Maddie was a small, quiet, black chook who lived in a backyard in a big city. The pen she lived in was split in two. On Maddie’s side, the nice chooks lived and on the other side, mean, selfish chooks lived.
Maddie was the only black chook in her pen; all the other chooks were bright white. Maddie sometimes felt sad because she was different, and because she was quiet and little, nobody ever gave her much attention.
The selfish chooks had most of the food because they stole it through the hole in the fence while the nice chooks weren’t looking. The mean, selfish chooks always teased Maddie because she was black and not white like them.
The nice chooks asked for the food back but the mean, selfish chooks just laughed at them. One day the nice chooks had a meeting to plan how to get the food back. The plan was to go through the hole in the fence in the dead of night when the mean selfish chooks were asleep. Maddie asked if she could help and try and get the food back. The other chooks said OK even though they thought she wouldn’t be able to donate much.
So that night they crawled through the hole in the fence, but because they were all so bright and white they glowed in the dark, and the mean, selfish chooks spotted them and started attacking them with their beaks and feet.
The mean, selfish chooks didn’t see Maddie, because it was dark and she was black, she was camouflaged. In the morning when all the nice chooks woke up, they saw Maddie eating a pile of food. They were amazed that Maddie had gotten all this food. They cheered for her and said, “what a brave chook you are, Maddie!” The mean, selfish chooks went hungry that day.
When Maddie grew up to be an adult chook, she became a famous spy. She had lots of missions and even stole a cranky rooster’s underwear!!!