Non-Fiction Pick of the Week: Twenty Chickens for a Saddle

Twenty chickens for a saddle:the story of an African childhood by Robyn Scott 2008


Keith and Lynn Scott decided to uproot their young family of three and return to Botswana to farm in the wild and pursue their mother's interest in alternative medicine. This biography recounts the 15 years that the family resided in Botswana.

Keith was a medical doctor who flew to remote villages to care for the sick local blacks. The children Robyn, Damien, and Lulu were homeschooled and they enjoyed living on a farm close to the bush with the exotic wildlife nearby. Both parents were very outspoken and befriended many of the local inhabitants. Keith was very concerned with the large number of his patients that were dying of AIDS. He tried to apply political pressure to ensure the availability of medication to ease the symptoms of AIDS. Lynn was interested in the nutritional supplements and their role in boosting the immune system of AIDS patients. Both parents instilled the values of caring and social justice into their three children.

The significance of the title was that Robyn wanted to buy a new saddle for her horse and she decided to raise free range hens and sell eggs to earn the money to purchase the saddle.