"When she was young, the writer Flannery O'Connor was captivated by the chickens in her yard. She'd watch their wings flap, their beaks peck, and their eyes glint. At age six, her life was forever changed when she and a chicken she had been training to walk forwards and backwards were featured in the Pathe News, and she realized that people want to see what is odd and strange in life. But while she loved birds of all varieties and kept several species around the house, it was the peacocks that came to dominate her life."--Provided by publisher.
"Right from the start young Flannery took a shine to chickens. They pecked around her backyard, filled her sketch book, and starred in her stories. Eventually, her early occupation blossomed into a full-blown quest to find the strangest, most unusual bird. At the same time she honed her craft as a writer, observing the true strangeness of life itself. In this gorgeous picture book biography, Amy Alznauer offers a sometimes funny, sometimes poignant portrait of the great American author Flannery O'Connor. Ping Zhu's emotionally contoured paintings give us a vision of Flannery that is marked by humor, intensity, loss, and triumph."--book jacket.