Chickens headline author's book series

Imagine living in Janet Morgan Stoeke’s world.

Your neighbors are a feather-headed chicken who goes on joyrides in a farmer’s truck and a dessert-loving hedgehog whose house is decorated in pie motif.


It’s a fun and adventuresome world created by Stoeke in her award-winning children’s books.

To date, the Virginia-based writer-illustrator has penned 24 stories. No. 25 is currently on her desk, she said.

Stoeke is best known for her entertaining Minerva Louise books — quirky stories about a daffy hen and her amusing adventures.

But she also has written stories about topics close to her heart, including “Waiting for May,” inspired by her own family’s experience of adopting a little girl from China.

Fans of Stoeke’s work will have an opportunity to meet the author when she appears Saturday, April 16, at the West Virginia Book Faire at the Martinsburg Mall.

As part of the children’s program, which begins at 10 a.m., Stoeke’s presentation will center on the Minerva Louise books. She will read and share her experiences that led to the stories and then will join children in creating a story of their own.

Stoeke said spending time with her audience is something she always enjoys.

“I go into schools and libraries a lot,” she said. “I find out what will make children laugh and when I have missed the punch line. They are always curious, always enthusiastic and full of surprises -— just like Minerva Louise.”

While Stoeke finds writing children’s books a rewarding career, it wasn’t the profession she expected to pursue.

She grew up in Connecticut in an artistic family and worked at The Washingtonian Magazine designing ads.

But a dream about a chicken helped lead her down another career path.

“My first book came as a surprise,” she said. “I found out about a contest that was nearly over. I had just 10 days to send something in and I spent the first one stressing about not having any ideas.”

But then she remembered a dream she had had about a chicken sitting on a windowsill.

“So I took the image and worked on it,” she said. “Only because there were no other better ideas, that one became my entry. And it won. That was Minerva Louise.”

Stoeke said she had been an artist for most of her life and hadn’t dreamed about writing until that first book.

“It scared me but I was determined,” she said. “I think I can write well for kids because I have good memory and can recall most of my childhood vividly. And, I guess, I was an English major, too.”

Stoeke said she came up with the name Minerva while looking for type for the book’s cover.