Cover Reveal Q&A: INTERRUPTING CHICKEN RAISES HER WING by David Ezra Stein

There’s a new book in David Ezra Stein’s Interrupting Chicken series: Interrupting Chicken Raises Her Wing.

It’s out October 13th and today we get a first look at the cover. But first, I wanted to ask David Ezra Stein a few questions about this book and series.

Travis: Hi David! What was the inspiration for this new entry into the Interrupting Chicken series?

David Ezra Stein: In third grade, my class had the privilege of visiting the Whitney Museum of American Art in Manhattan once a month.

We’d take a big yellow school bus from our school in Queens into the big city. We had a docent, Ms. Smith, who guided our visits. She was a young woman with a clipboard who would sit us in front of several works of art per visit, and we’d have a deep discussion about each. Not only did these visits eventually inspire me to become an artist, but they also inspired Interrupting Chicken Raises Her Wing.

In this Interrupting Chicken museum adventure, you’ll see a big yellow bus, the big city, a clipboard, and quite a few works of art for the chicken to jump into! 

Travis: What’s the best thing about returning to a familiar character? What’s a challenge?

David: The Interrupting Chicken is probably the most like me of all my characters. Not to say that I interrupt as much as she does, but that she embodies the enthusiasm and joy of my inner child most closely of all my creations. It’s relatively easy to get into her mindset and know what she would do in a given situation, and a pleasure to see what she gets up to. She makes me laugh!

The challenge is to make a book with many layers and moving parts that reads naturally and easily. It’s got to flow right along. I put a lot of work into that, and I’m satisfied when it feels like a short book even when it’s 40 pages.

Travis: Can you talk about how you make the art for the Interrupting Chicken books?

David: I begin by sketching all the pages out by hand, usually in small thumbnail drawings. Then I scan them in and lay them out in the computer, and put the story text onto them. I print them out again, edit by hand, scan in again. I often bind tiny printouts of the sketches into a book (called a turning dummy) to see how the pages are turning and how the text is breaking. I’ll cut unnecessary text or rephrase things as I go. When the editor and art director and I am happy with the pacing and layout of the book, I’ll print the sketches out actual size and put them on my light box to draw and paint over. I try to keep to the liveliness of my original sketches and gestures as much as I can.

I used pencil, crayon, China marker and gouache to make the art for this book. It’s a bit of an evolution from the original Chicken book where I used a lot of watercolor rather than gouache—I’m always finding better ways to work!

Travis: Last Question: What snack puts you in peak creativity mode?

David: Hmmm, I don’t really rely on snacks in that way, creativity-wise! Are Cheetos brain food? Seriously, though, seltzer is refreshing, and when I get a little “peckish,” I love chips and hummus with some olive oil and Balsamic vinegar on top…. Chicken would like me to tell you that she prefers cookies.

Travis: Thanks for taking my questions, David!

And now, for the first time, the cover for Interrupting Chicken Raises Her Wing by David Ezra Stein, published by Candlewick Press (October 15, 2026)

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