To set the stage and give you as much background information as possible without giving the whole book away and leaving no delightful surprises…

As the next Bibliothécaire Principale, or Head Librarian, of the entire Living Library throughout the world, Pearl is required to produce books to be read by people. These books should help her to fulfill the mission of The Living Library. We thought it would be good to explain the background of her first book which will be about The Great Gardener’s Son. This is the name that chickens use for who we people call Jesus Christ.

Once you understand His place in her heart, you will understand why this had to be her first book and could be called “literary non-fiction” or even “faction.”

What follows are Pearl’s own words which she asked me to write down for her.

---

The Hat By Which We Chickens Know Him
❦

Before I share with you the hats I created for teaching about Our Great Gardener’s Son, please allow me to share with you His hat, the hat that we chickens know him by. I did not make this hat, but it is the most perfect hat for him. We always watch and wait for this hat.

It is a simple hat made of straw woven together, and it has a simple brown cloth band around it. Of all the hats he might have chosen, it is the one that suits him best. Although it is certainly humble, he wears it as if it were a crown of gold and jewels when he comes to spend time with us.

I have seen him wearing this hat when he comes to check on us and to make sure that we have what we need for food and water. He also checks to make sure we have safety and shelter.

It is a hat that we like because it is made from straw, which is what we chickens use to build our nests or simply to sit on to feel warm and comfortable.

Even the brown band around it reminds us of the brown on our feathers and the brown on our eggs. We are also reminded of the brown of the earth beneath our feet, from which our food grows and through which earthworms squirm.

We will also see him wearing this hat when he comes to take one of us away with him to a place where we will know no more pain or sorrow, only the joy of being in his presence. Those of us who are left behind are saddened, but we are also gladdened when those among us are no longer troubled by pain and discomfort.

That is what happened on the day my best friend, Blanche, left us. It was an Easter Sunday morning, and as her body became still, he reached in, picked her up and held her to his chest. She looked up at him with love in her eyes, nodded, and they were gone.

I stayed with her body because she looked as if she had just fallen asleep, but that didn’t seem possible because she had been sick for so long.

When Nate, our Gardener, came home, he found a perfect spot for her under the camellias.

We knew she was with The Great Gardener’s Son, and truly, what more could any chicken or person ever want beyond that?

But I do miss Blanche so much. Some days I stand at the top of the chicken ladder and call for her to come home, and the loneliness is hurting so deeply.

I try sitting on my eggs to help them hatch, but they never do. Nate says it’s because the city won’t let him have a rooster and roosters aren’t very friendly. I just want someone to love. That’s all.

This handsome hat looks quite impressive with his beard and brown suspenders. We chickens love this hat. It would be just like him to take it off his head and offer it to one of us as a cozy nest because he is always caring for the lowest of the low like he is their humble servant. I also imagine that after we have laid our eggs in his hat and kept them warm, he would wait with us for them to hatch.

He would treat them as if they were his own, and truly they would be his own since we are all his own. He does the same for people who are born instead of hatching. How that getting born stuff happens is a mystery to me, but it’s no more a mystery than hatching from an egg. Both are quite miraculously mysterious in their own way.

For some of you, what I’ve asked Nate to draw is not exactly the picture you may hold in your head of the Great Gardener’s Son. I don’t want you to change your picture. If anything, I want only to perhaps enhance the picture you hold in your head and help you to hold it in your heart as well. This is a far more important job for me than anything else I might do.

What people think about The Great Gardener’s Son is probably more significant for them than almost anything else.

---

Pearl and I have prepared the files to send them off for publication through Barnes & Noble Press. We are aiming for a moderately thin paperback book with full-color illustrations to keep the price down.

We think you will find the illustrations of Pearl’s hat creations very memorable! After we have received a print copy to inspect, we will let you know where it will be available!