Tic-Tac-Toe Chicken

$19.95

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, 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 clever thinking.

Release date: August 2025

Kimberly Tso

Kimberly Tso is an author of children’s books. Her debut book, Tic-Tac-Toe Chicken, illustrated by Louie Chin, will be published by Third State Books in August 2025. Ms. Tso was born in New York City, and growing up she split her time between there and Arlington, Virginia.

She now lives in Los Angeles with her partner and two daughters. Prior to writing children’s books, she was a grantwriter for nonprofits and taught grantwriting to graduate public policy students. When she is not writing books, she enjoys cooking, reading, playing video games, solving puzzles, and spending time with her family.

Louie Chin

Louie is an illustrator whose work includes the children's book, Bodega Cat, which was a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection in 2020. He has created artworks for a variety of publications and projects, including the New York Times, Boston Globe, and Nike.

He works in both traditional mediums such as watercolor and gouache as well as with digital art software. He was born and raised in New York City, where he still resides. Louie is of Chinese-American descent.