Gowie Corby Plays Chicken

Gowie Corby Plays Chicken (ISBN 9780571114054) is a children's novel by Gene Kemp, set at the fictional Cricklepit Combined primary school in southern England.

[1] The central character is Gowie Corby, a young boy with an absent father, an alcoholic mother and an obsession with horror films.

He is highly intelligent but shows little interest in school and exhibits a range of anti-social behaviour.

His life changes when an African-American girl, Rosie Lee, comes to live next door and provides him with a positive role-model.

His progress is threatened however, by the intervention of his older brother, who has a record of petty crime and displays racist attitudes towards Rosie and her family.