Local author Caryn Broome to read children’s book at Carnegie Library

A longtime Newnan resident is turning a lunchtime joke with her grandchildren into a children's book — and now she's bringing it to Carnegie Library!

Please join the fun on Saturday, July 18, 2026 at the Newnan Carnegie Library, 1 LaGrange Street, Newnan, Georgia at 10 a.m. Caryn will be reading If Chickens Had Hands to kids of all ages! Admission is free and coloring pages will be available.

Broome said her book began as a spontaneous conversation with her grandchildren over lunch in downtown Newnan.

"We were eating chicken, and I was trying to get my granddaughter to hurry up," Broome said. "They said, 'Chickens don't have hands.' So I asked, 'What would they do if they did have hands?'"

What followed was a flood of imaginative answers, so much so that Broome began recording their ideas on her phone. She later shaped those ideas into a playful, laugh-out-loud rhyming picture book that invites children to imagine a world where chickens might grab, catch and create just like people.

In addition to If Chickens Had Hands, Broome is already working on a sequel titled If Fish Had Feet.