Once Upon a Flock
Life With My Soulful Chickens
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- £4.99
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- £4.99
Publisher Description
When Lauren Scheuer decided to raise backyard chickens she never expected the adventures that followed or the extent to which she would fall in love with them. Scheuer's chickens, with their colourfully individual personalities, friendships and rivalries, star in this charming story filled with quirky humour and occasional heartbreak. We meet all the characters in the flock: Jenny, a chick who is as easy to love as she is to laugh at, Hatsy, an elegant and adventurous leader, and Lil' White, a chicken with the respectable comportment of a Southern belle. Documenting the daily adventures of her chicken family, and their subtle interactions with each other, with her own witty photos and illustrations (all in full colour throughout). Lauren Scheuer comes to realise that love, loss and passion are not only parts of the human experience, but essential parts of chicken life as well. This is a must-have for all animal lovers.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Though readers may not associate chickens with empathy, this delightful book will likely change such opinions. After Scheuer, a children's book illustrator who writes the blog Scratch and Peck, decided to introduce chicks to her rural Massachusetts backyard, the rewards of raising them to adulthood (with her husband and teenage daughter) far outpaced her minimal expectations, offering "hilarity and drama and life." Her keen eye for subtle interactions enabled her to clearly delineate the distinct characters of Hatsy, Little White, Lucy, and Jenny, compelling the reader to invest in each bird, and in their ups and downs almost as intensely as Scheuer did. With frequent examples of selflessness a chicken slowing its pace to match an ill comrade, or staying outside in the terrifying nighttime darkness to keep another company the author pre-empts any criticism that she's just anthropomorphized her beloved animals. This must-have for animal lovers also features Scheuer's drawings, which along with photographs, enhance the endearing text. Illus.
