Former Downers Grove firefighter pens children’s book inspired by his backyard chickens

Inspiration can be found as close as your backyard, especially if your backyard has chickens.

T.J. Aagesen of Elgin never thought about the virtues of his four fowl friends until his sister challenged him to write a bedtime story for his two young nephews.

That bedtime story has become a published book, “Chicken For a Day,” available for sale now.

It was a whole new world for the recently retired firefighter.

“Not in my wildest dreams did I ever think I’d be doing something like this,” Aagesen said.

“Chicken for a Day” describes, through the eyes of a mother (his sister Megan Miller), why her two young children (nephews Alec, 2, and Lucas, 4) should aspire to be like chickens.

“Writing this, I had to take off my fire helmet and put this child helmet on and try and think like a kid,” he said.

Aagesen realized traits in his chickens that he didn’t notice until he started working on the book. They go to bed on time every day, eat all their vegetables, look out for one another and start every day with a positive attitude and a song, he said.

“It’s essentially me just telling my nephews how to be good kids,” he said. “Plus, chickens do some funny things.”

The former firefighter may seem an unlikely candidate to be a children’s author.

Aagesen, 40, was a senior in high school and studying to be a firefighter when the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, took place.

“At that point, you couldn’t have galvanized that decision for me any more than in that moment,” he said. “It resonated throughout my whole career and I never forgot that.”

Aagesen spent about 19 years in fire service, starting in South Elgin. He did a brief stint in Huntley before spending most of his career in Downers Grove, where a back injury on the job in 2021 led to two surgeries. He was forced to retire early.

“It was a great career and I enjoyed everything about it,” he said.

Aagesen said he wrote to fill his newfound free time and to help challenge himself mentally. It also was something he just did for himself.

One day, his sister, who had fielded more than her share of calls from her bored brother in his plentiful spare time, gave him a task.

“She just got annoyed with me calling and said, ‘I want you to write your nephews a bedtime story,’ ” he said. “I’m like, ‘I don’t know how to write children’s books.’ But she said I’d figure it out.”

Aagesen doesn’t have children. However, he spends a lot of time with his nephews. So he tossed some ideas around in his mind.

The next day, Aagesen awoke at 3 a.m. and knew what the book would be about. He immediately went downstairs and wrote the entire story on 36 Post-it notes on a dining table.

He moved the Post-it notes to pages in a notebook and did rough sketches of what he thought the corresponding imagery would be.

“It was really eye-opening,” he said. “I didn’t think I’d find so much joy in it.”

He enlisted the help of a friend – graphic designer and fine arts artist Kasey McElroy of West Dundee – to handle the more than 30 pages of art. That took more than a year.

“I really enjoyed bringing the energy of the chickens to life,” McElroy said. “It was a long process to get there. But now that it’s printed, it’s really exciting to see it.”

His sister has read the book to his nephews multiple times while shedding tears filled with pride, but Aagesen hasn’t had the chance yet. He’s scheduled to read it to their day care class soon.

“That will be really cool,” he said. “They lost their minds when I gave it to them.”

The book can be bought online at chickenforaday.square.site/. Aagesen also hopes to have local retailers sell the book.

https://www.dailyherald.com/20240823/news/former-firefighter-pens-childrens-book-inspired-by-his-backyard-chickens/