Uncommon Friends is a compassionately written guide to helping our backyard/pet chickens live their best, happiest, and healthiest life by Grazyna Witkowska. Released 9th Jan 2022, it's 198 pages and is available in paperback, audio, and ebook formats. For Kindle Unlimited subscribers, this book is currently included in the KU subscription library to borrow and read for free.

For a long while, chickens were seen as (and often legally categorized as) livestock. They weren't generally seen as pets, on a level with cats and dogs, but only as egg/meat producers, to be butchered or discarded at the end of their productive lives. The author has interacted with her chickens to an unusual degree and has developed a deep connection with them and their individual personalities and she shares those experiences in this volume.

This is partly an autobiographical book, with photos of the author and some of her individual chickens. She explains her own personal journey with keeping chickens and also delves into the philosophy of the interspecies connections and the relationships we can and probably should have with our own animals. It touches on, but not deeply, the practical aspects of husbandry.

The book has a logical and easy to understand layout. Her writing style is always chatty and informal (and quite earnest, but in a nice way). There is a fair amount of content devoted to specific information about what makes a good life is as related to Maslow's hierarchy of needs, and also how to facilitate the best existence for our pet chickens. For people who see animals only for their usefulness and how they can best be used by humans, there's a lot of valuable philosophy here and some hard truths about the value of life and how to coexist peacefully with others (whatever their species) for the betterment of all involved.

There's less actual practical information about chicken keeping, building coops, feeding schedules, etc than in most chicken keeping books. All that information, including plans for coops and structures, can be found easily online. This book has a different philosophical slant. For utilitarian readers, the book contains a fair amount of "woo woo" and discussions of energy work, and some anthropomorphism. I personally didn't find it off-putting, and I think in most cases, seeing animals as beings, capable of thought and feelings (at least of pain and contentment) will help to see them as self actualizing and deserving of respect and our best care.

Four stars. This would be a good choice for public or school library acquisition, for backyard chicken keepers, animal lovers, even vegans.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

An absolutely adorable and inherently informative book on all things chook! I would recommend this to anyone who is interested in chickens, but especially those who are in Australia.

Packed with personal stories and accounts, tons of information, and incredibly cute drawings and photographs, this book would be a perfect gift for anyone with an interest in chickens — whether you’re a novice or a hardened chook wrangler!

This is such a beautiful love letter to chickens. Chickens are beautiful animals and are often misunderstood. This book provides chicken keepers and those interested in becoming a chicken keeper with all the information needed to be a responsible caretaker to these sweet animals. I appreciate the extensive research the author completed to provide such a detailed book. I also love the pictures and descriptions of the chickens and coops. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in learning about chicken keeping as well as for those who already love and understand what it takes to be a responsible chicken caretaker.