Come meet some wonderful hens in this new video introducing Sy’s new book, What the Chicken Knows:
Indie booksellers love What the Chicken Knows. Sy’s new book is on November’s Indie Next List Picks. Bookseller Mary O’Malley, of Skylark Bookshop in Columbia, Missouri, says: “As the tender of a small flock of chickens, how could I rate this anything less than a 10? Smarter than we give them credit for and a source of endless amusement, chickens are given their due in this wonderful book.”
Go, hens! What a Chicken Knows is one of Kirkus Reviews’ “20 Best Books to Read in November” and among Barnes & Noble’s “Best Books of November and December 2024.” The Ladies are in fine company–see the other books on the lists here and here.
And both Parade Magazine and People Magazine also suggests that you put the book on your reading list.
Sy tells Wayne King what chickens know on his podcast, NH Legends and Lore. Listen here.
And on WICN. Listen here. Also on NHPR. Listen here.
What the Chicken Knows, is a Fall Editor’s Pick in Library Journal. See the other great picks here.
The Union Leader catches up with the Hen-i-verse. They interviewed Sy:
Montgomery once found herself defending chickens with a man seated next to her on an airplane. Chickens are “dirty and stupid and mean,” the man told her.
“And then I discovered he got that impression from working on a factory farm,” Montgomery said.
“I told him my father was a prisoner of war of the Japanese in World War II, and that possibly if he had met the people in the prison at that time, he would have had the same impression,” she said.
They kept talking. “I don’t want to make people feel bad,” she said. “I want to help people see a far more interesting truth about chickens.”
These sorts of conversations happen a lot on plane rides, Montgomery said. “Often people sitting next to me end up talking about animals — I don’t know how that happens,” she said, eyes sparkling.
So what does the chicken know?
“The chicken knows a great deal about relationships, and their importance,” she said. “That is central to a chicken’s life.”
They also understand spatial arrangements, she said. “They are terrific at finding their way around. Some scientific experiments have found that, even in the absence of landmarks, a chicken can find the exact center of even a space they’ve never been to before.”
Chickens also know a lot about communication, Montgomery said. “They are able to transmit complex messages to each other,” she said. “So they are having very meaningful conversations. They’re not just saying bok-bok-bok.”
“It may be that the most underestimated of animals still have revelations to share with us,” she said.
Read the rest of the interview here.
Sy talks Chickens with Steve Curwood, host of Living on Earth:
Steve: You point out in your book that if you go to the dictionary to look up “chicken,” you see it listed first as flesh, something to be eaten, not even mentioning the creature itself. And I think probably most of us, you know that’s how we are acquainted with chickens, as something that goes on the dinner plate. Why should people know more about these birds in a personal way, why dedicate a whole book to them, Sy?
Sy: Well, dead and cooked is never the best way to get to know someone. So, I kind of think it’s a waste of a perfectly good friendship to cook and eat them. But chickens are the one bird that even if you can’t recognize a crow, even if you can’t recognize a robin, people can identify a chicken. But even though we recognize them, and everyone thinks they know a chicken, people underestimate them all the time. Chickens have a lot of wonderful things about them, but to me, the most wonderful of all is their company, and being able to travel in the chicken universe, and be able to see that even in this, you know, commonest of creatures that everyone can recognize, there is still like mystery and excitement. There’s still a soul there. Each animal is highly individual, and we have so much to learn from them.
Listen to the Living on Earth interview here.
And Sy got to talk chickens with animal behavior expert Marc Beckoff in Psychology Today. Read the interview.
The just-published paperback of Of Time and Turtles has debuted at number 6 on The Boston Globe’s list of paperback nonfiction.
Sy, Matt and Firechief (in spirit) wowed them in San Francisco in their turtle talk for the Turtle Survival Alliance and Bookshop West Portal (80 West Portal Ave.) West Coast, East Coast, Sy and Matt are happy to talk turtles – or talk to turtles.
The German edition of The Hummingbird’s Gift is out.
Ten books that will transform how you see nature. For Earth Day, The Washington Post asked ten authors to recommend books “that influenced their relationships with the natural world.” Sy talked about Farley Mowat’s Never Cry Wolf:
Now in Japanese: Secrets of the Octopus. (And, we hear, in German, though we haven’t seen the book yet.)
Sy is looking forward to joining Stoughton (Mass.) Reads for April 22 and 23rd. It’s all-out-octos for Earth Day.
Win a new book. OctoNation is thrilled to offer OctoFans a chance to win a copy of the newest National Geographic book, Secrets of the Octopus by Sy Montgomery and the founder of OctoNation, Warren K. Carlyle IV. 
Vote for Sy & Matt. The Book of Turtles has been nominated for an award from professional humane educators — and you, the hardshell faithful, can 
Telling Secrets. 
Turtles all the way down … south. The Hardshell Faithful turn out at the Savannah Book Festival to hear Sy and Matt talk about the their turtle books.
Get Out Alive — always a worthy goal, and a great name for the podcast on which Sy shared her turtle (and shark and tiger and octopus) adventures. 
“Sy creates vivid portraits of many of the residents of TRL who acquire colorful names, usually based on the circumstances in which they’re found – Pizza Man, Fire Chief, etc. As with the octopuses, real relationships develop between their care givers and these strange creatures, who predate even the dinosaurs. I have to admit that I haven’t retained much knowledge about the various sub-species of turtles who pass through, but I do recall the individuals and cheer their recoveries or mourn their losses.
Wild Reads. One of Sy’s favorite books growing up was Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat. It is her choice for Wild Reads: Experts Share their Favorite Animal-Inspired Books. The reading list is at the PBS Masterpiece Theatre 
Sy has brought her octo-magic to a new anthology, Animal Dignity. Twenty writers, historians, ethnologists, artists, and philosophers explore how “we understand the dignity and value of non-human animals.” The book has a sterling line-up: Alexandra Horowitz (Dignity in Dogs); Jonathan Safer Foer (33,00 Birds); Martha Nussbaum (on the “capabilities” of animals); and a foreword by Jane Goodall.