What the Chicken Knows by Sy Montgomery

TL;DR: Sy Montgomery is a go-to nature writer for me. This was fantastic.
Source: Netgalley, thank you so much to the publisher!

Plot: Our author talks about chickens, facts and her life with them. It’s short and sweet, an easy one sitting read.
Sources: For a short book Sy Montgomery had quite a few sources listed as well as plenty of personal stories.
Readability: This is part of the appeal of this author. Her writing and style is very welcoming to casual readers.

Thoughts:

I’m probably a stereotype, a white person in the south who loves chickens. I’ll own that. I’d like to own chickens but the husband needs to be convinced (a work in progress), and this short little book goes even further to bolster that for me. If you loved chickens before reading this you’re only going to love them more after, and if you were on the fence this will likely swing you into chicken fandom.

Sy Montgomery has kept chickens for years. Telling us stories about her chickens as she gives us facts makes this a super easy and accessible book for just about anyone to read. There is also a lot of new things in here I hadn’t actually heard, which surprised me. Things such as chickens giving people names, something other birds do evidently! And stories of the different sounds that they make as they communicate. You’d think this would be understood, that animals speak, but unfortunately humanity as a species just doesn’t quite make that connection and research is scarce. These facts and stories are slipped in naturally to the narratives that Sy is giving us and it makes for a fast and flawless read.

I really loved this and I recommend it for other animal, especially chicken, lovers. If you want a hopeful and sweet animal book this is a great pickup as well. I’ll likely try to get my own copy one day and highly encourage others to do so.

Five stars