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.