"For the past several years, on a farm north of San Francisco, the celebrated writer Alice Walker has diligently cared for a flock of chickens. Over time, her blossoming relationship with 'her girls' developed in unexpected ways, becoming a source of inspiration, strength, and spiritual discovery. Her flock even helped Walker connect more profoundly with her own past as a girl in rural Georgia. The Chicken Chronicles is a record of this remarkable experience and an extraordinary document of personal discovery, political commitment, and the joys of relating to animals. Each of Walker's thirty-eight chronicles addresses her 'girls' directly, sometimes from the intimate proximity of her yard, other times at a great distance--from her journeys to Bali and Dharamsala as a witness and activist for peace and justice"--Cover, p. 2.