Book Review of
What the Chicken Knows

Lynn's Review

What the Chicken Knows by Sy Montgomery was published in 2024.

What Chicken Knows is a nonfiction book about chickens. 

After hearing several online book reviewers rave about this book, I decided to read it. I also knew that if I bought it, I could pass it on to my sister and her kids, who raise chickens. 

This book is basically the author’s short memoir of her time raising chickens. She tells stories about her own chickens and those she helped take care of. 

I have always thought of chickens as dumb animals, but I don’t have much experience with them. According to the author, they are actually smart. 

The author treated her chickens like pets and more like humans than anyone I have ever heard of. Most people I know treat chickens like farm animals. 

This is one of the reasons I have mixed thoughts on this book. Parts of it were interesting, and I learned some things, but chickens inside your house just seem odd to me. 

If you enjoy stories about animals, you might enjoy this one. However, there are some descriptive parts where chickens are harmed, so that part won’t be for everyone. 

Also, when I ordered this book, I didn’t know that it was under 100 pages. I also didn’t realize that it was taken from a previous book by the author. This book is a chapter of a book she wrote in 2010. So, I paid $20 for a book that was a chapter in a book that doesn’t cost much more than that.