2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011
December, 2021
Sy enjoyed talking about The Hummingbirds’ Gift with Laurent Levy on his podcast, The Other Animals. Listen here or on Spotify.
November, 2021
The Soul of an Octopus keeps finding new readers. It is number 4 on The Los Angeles Times bestseller list of paperback nonfiction for November 17.
Lookin’ sharp. A fan’s black Lab modeling a t-shirt of Sy.
Go pig, go! The Good Good Pig is in its 22nd trade paperback printing. There are now 123,244 trade paperbacks in print.
October, 2021
Turtles for the winter. Thanks to a state permit, Sy gets to head-start four, darling, infant painted turtles in her office. They just hatched a few weeks ago from the nest protection area where turtle artist extraordinaire Matt Patterson and Sy volunteer. Once they’re no longer snack-sized for every frog and fish in the river, they’ll release them in the spring back in their home waters. Note the egg tooth on the first baby pictured, which is used to escape from the egg and later resorbed.
Sy was thrilled to be able to release a broad-winged hawk at the annual hawk release held by the Harris Center and New Hampshire Audubon at the Pack Monadnock hawk watch. The three hawks who flew to freedom were rehabilitated after injury by the angelic Maria Colby of the Wings of the Dawn Wildlife Rehabilitation Sanctuary. Safe travels to all the migrants.
Author Barbara Page wrote to Sy to tell her that The Soul of an Octopus inspired this lovely artwork in her imaginative new Book Marks: An Artist’s Card Catalog. You can see some of her other artwork (and which books inspired them) here.
Susan Orleans, author of The Orchid Thief, and the new essay collection On Animals, recommends six books about animals in The Week. “Only one of these books … completely changed my attitude toward a species,” says Orleans. That book is The Soul of an Octopus. “In this case, I went from being neutral about octopuses to being awed by them and their remarkable, sophisticated intelligence. I never imagined I would feel so moved by an eight-legged creature!”
The Living on Earth radio show’s reporter Bobby Bascomb visited Sy at home to talk about The Hummingbird’s Gift:
BASCOMB: What do you hope that readers get out of your book?
MONTGOMERY: I hope that they see that miracles happen all the time, and that we can take a hand in them. And that even in small ways, we can heal the problems that are besetting our Earth. The hummingbirds to me, are a great symbol of hope. Because after all, you know, it’s their fragility and their vulnerability that gives them their strength. And right now, so many of us are feeling vulnerable and fragile, and we don’t know what’s ahead. But if you look at a hummingbird, and what it’s able to accomplish, the superlatives that it can achieve. Well, we should be able to help heal this earth we messed up to begin with.
Listen to the interview here.
September, 2021
Sy loved her visit, via Zoom, with the Krempes Center — a nonprofit devoted to improving the lives of people living with brain injuries. The good folks at the Center read Sy’s books and joined a Zoom with Sy discussing How to Be A Good Creature. They loved meeting Thurber (who’s in the book) as he walked in for a guest appearance.
August, 2021
Robert Frost was the first and Sy is the latest. Sy is honored to be counted among the great writers, starting with Robert Frost in 1956, to receive the Sarah Josepha Hale award at the beautiful Richards Free Library in Newport, New Hampshire. She thanks her hosts, including Richards library director Justine Fafara (seen here with Sy on the porch of the library), the trustees, and judges for a spectacular evening.
Long live the Octo. Following Sy’s talk with Ezra Klein, The Soul of an Octopus swims back to the August 1 New York Times paperback nonfiction bestseller list at #13.
Becoming a Good Creature is a finalist for the 2021 New England Book Awards.
The Hummingbird’s Gift has landed on The Boston Globe’s bestseller list.
July, 2021
“I’ve spent the past few months on an octopus kick. In that, I don’t seem to be alone,” says journalist Ezra Klein. Octopuses (it’s incorrect to say “octopi,” to my despair) are having a moment: There are award-winning books, documentaries and even science fiction about them. I suspect it’s the same hunger that leaves many of us yearning to know aliens: How do radically different minds work? What is it like to be a truly different being living in a similar world? The flying objects above remain unidentified. But the incomprehensible objects below do not. We are starting to be smart enough to ask the question: How smart are octopuses? And what are their lives like?”
So he talked Sy about her “dazzling book,” The Soul of an Octopus.
His talk with Sy “was a joy. She “writes and speaks with an appropriate sense of wonder about the world around us and the other animals that inhabit it. This is a conversation about octopuses, of course, but it’s also about us: our minds, our relationship with the natural world, what we see and what we’ve learned to stop seeing. It will leave you looking at the water — and maybe at yourself — differently.”
Listen to The Ezra Klein Show on Apple, Spotify or Google or wherever you get your podcasts. A full transcript of their conversation is available on The New York Times website.
Online Event – Peter Wohlleben and Sy Montgomery in conversation about trees
Monday, July 12 at 2:00 pm. Join Sy Montgomery and bestselling author Peter Wohlleben for an uplifting conversation about the natural world, in celebration of Wohlleben’s new book The Heartbeat of Trees. Wohlleben. the author of The Hidden Life of Trees, returns to his favorite subject—trees—in this powerful, timely new book. Click the link above for your Zoom connection.
The lyrical film makers at the Salt Project have caught the magic of hummingbirds in a new short video featuring Sy. Watch it on Facebook, or on Vimeo, or YouTube.
After reading The Soul of an Octopus, Penny Howe wrote a song, My Octopal:
Long before the dinosaurs were ever born,
The very first octopus faced its first dawn.
At first with a shell that it very soon shed,
Still millions of years before the first biped.
With a beak like a bird,
A bite like a snake,
And ink like an old fashioned pen.
It can sneak like a fox,
And walk like an ape.
But what more could you want in a friend.
So if you feel blue,
If you’re feeling down,
There’s nothing like an octopus
To help you come round.
A hug from this pod,
Will work like a charm.
When you feel all the love
In three hearts and eight arms.
The writer Annie Graves has written a warm and appreciative portrait of Sy and her world for Yankee magazine. Read her story here.
Sy was asked to share some life lessons with the good folks at World Class Performer.
What is something you wish you would’ve realized earlier in your life?
I wish I could go back to my childhood and youth and tell that desperate, young person “one day, you will live your dreams, and wake up every morning crazy in love with life.”
What are bad recommendations you hear in your profession or area of expertise?
“It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” If you are kind and thoughtful, if you work hard and give back, not only will you accumulate knowledge and skill–but also genuine friends who will help you. Both are essential.
Read more of the short interview here.
June, 2021
Sy enjoyed her visit to the Townsend, Massachusetts, library where they created this lovely story walk for Becoming a Good Creature.
Here’s Sy reading The Hummingbird’s Gift at one of the best bookstores around, Gibson’s in Concord, New Hampshire.
May, 2021
My animal teachers. Betsy Groban interviewed Sy about Becoming a Good Creature for the Boston Globe:
- Q: You assert in the book that animals can be great teachers for kids. Can you say more about that?
- A: Humans have been important in my life — I even married one. But animals, too, have been essential as friends, mentors, teachers, inspiration. My first dog, Molly, showed me what I wanted to do with my life: learn the secrets of animals. Three emus showed me the path to do so: to follow wild animals wherever they were, and tell their stories. A pig showed me that family is not made out of genes, but love. An ermine taught me forgiveness. This doesn’t mean that humans don’t make good teachers, but it’s great to reassure both kids and grownups that teachers are everywhere, not just in the classroom, and they don’t all have two legs and opposable thumbs.
AudioFile likes Sy’s reading of The Hummingbird’s Gift for the audio-book: “Montgomery’s warm and intimate delivery makes listeners care about each development and setback. And her descriptions of these tiny marvels will almost certainly inspire you to step outside and observe the natural world with a new appreciation.”
And you can watch Sy talking about the new hummingbird book here. Thurber is also here to help.
Hummingbirds Coast to Coast. The Hummingbird’s Gift has debuted at number nine on the hardcover nonfiction bestseller list of the New England Independent Booksellers Association. And the new book is Number 4 on the Sonoma-Index’s Nonfiction Hardcover Bestseller List.
Hovering at the Edge of the Possible. On her Brainpickings website Maria Popova has written a paean to humming birds: “Between Science and Magic: How Hummingbirds Hover at the Edge of the Possible. How a tiny creature faster than the Space Shuttle balances the impossible equation of extreme fragility and superhuman strength.”
Her focus is Sy’s new hummingbird book. Maria Popova writes:
“We have The Hummingbirds’ Gift to widen us with wonder at the seeming impossibility of these fragile, fierce marvels of nature — and to render us wondersmitten with the hope that if individual humans are capable of bring individual hummingbirds back to life from the brink of death, then perhaps our entire species is capable of rehabilitating an entire planet; perhaps we are capable of a great deal more care and tenderness than we realize toward the myriad marvelous creatures with whom we share the ultimate cosmic miracle of life, this staggering improbability that is — somehow, somehow — possible.”
Read the rest of the post and see some beautiful hummingbird art here.
The Hummingbird’s Gift has taken flight. In the photo, Sy is signing books at the fabulous Gibson’s Bookstore in Concord, New Hampshire. She also shows off a hummingbird’s nest with two navy beans standing in for the diminutive eggs.
First reviews:
“Montgomery has written another engaging work of popular science, similar to her previous books,” says Library Journal.
“Zippy as its titular bird,” says the Associated Press, and “quite fascinating.”
“Montgomery’s bright, richly illustrated chronicle stirs renewed appreciation for human empathy, skill, and wonder and a miraculous winged species,” says Booklist.
The Washington Post suggests it as a “feel good book to brighten your summer: Ah, to be able to fly far, far away. The hummingbird — an inspiring creature — can do that and more. It’s the lightest bird in the sky, able to fly backward and beat its wings more than 60 times a second. This slim book, centered on two abandoned hummingbirds who are nurtured back to health, is ideal for garden reading.”
Barnes and Noble’s “Most Anticipated New Book Releases of May 2021” looks forward to Sy’s new book, The Hummingbird’s Gift:
“In each of her books, Sy Montgomery has introduced adults and children to the complicated, intelligent spirits of our fellow creatures in the natural world, be it an octopus, a good, good pig, pink dolphins, or golden moon bears. This tale of an intervention to save the lives of two orphaned, nearly microscopic hummingbird babies is a rumination on fragility and interdependence, and an extraordinary close-up on the wonder that is a hummingbird. ‘Hummingbirds are less flesh than fairies … little more than bubbles fringed with iridescent feathers — air wrapped in light.’”
April, 2021
Portrait of the young writer as a toddler. Sy was interviewed by Onlypicturebooks.com. She told them:
“I don’t even remember this, but my parents told me: When I was younger than two, my parents took me to the Frankfurt Zoo, in Germany — where I was born – not in the zoo, but in the city of the Frankfurt! I broke free of my parents’ hands for a few moments and disappeared. When they found me, I had toddled into the hippo pen — right next to a 3,000-pound hippo, considered the most dangerous animal in Africa.
“My parents weren’t happy, but clearly, both the hippos and I were fine about it. I always felt comfortable with animals—far more so than with most people.”
Read the rest of the interview here.
Kudos for Condor Comeback, winner of a Green Earth Honor Award. Check out the whole flock of winners here.
Sy enjoyed her visit via Zoom to the Chelmsford Library in Massachusetts for their All-Community read of How to be a Good Creature.
What better place to read about octopuses than while in the water? My book is in great company in the bathtub with author Chris Bohjalian, as he told the New York Times Book Review:
Describe your ideal reading experience (when, where, what, how).
I can read for hours in the bath. In the winter, when the sun sets early, it’s pretty close to heaven to read there on a Sunday afternoon and watch the sun disappear over the small mountain west of where I live. I also loved to read in swimming pools, pre-Covid, when vacations were a thing. I’d stand waist-deep in the water, the book open flat on the coralline lip of the pool.
What’s the most interesting thing you learned from a book recently?
From Sy Montgomery’s lovely The Soul of an Octopus: An octopus would make a terrible pet, but not because they’re dangerous. Rather, they’re playful and smart and usually gentle with humans, but they’re likely to get themselves into trouble slithering out of their tank.
After reading her book, I went to the New England Aquarium just to watch them.
First Review. Booklist loves Sy’s new book, The Hummingbirds’Gift: Wonder, Beauty, and Renewal on Wing:
“ Hummingbird rehabilitator Brenda Sherburn Labelle and two tiny orphans, Maya and Zuni, first appeared in passionate, prolific, and beloved naturalist Montgomery’s world-circling avian chronicle, Birdology (2010). Here she tells the entire tale of the hummers’ rescue and thriving, thanks to rigorous human attention involving feedings with a syringe every 20 minutes, nerve wracking treatments for a mite infestation, and clever ways to help them learn to fly.
“Montgomery shares an array of astounding facts about hummingbirds, from their proportionately enormous heart to how each day these little beings sup from 1,500 flowers and eat approximately 700 insects; how their wings beat 60 times per second; how they can hover, a unique ability; and how very combative and strong these little feathered marvels are, enduring long migrations year after year. Montgomery describes Maya and Zuni’s “remarkably expressive” little faces and different rates of development, and describes the fear and joy attendant upon their release into a world in which pollinators are severely imperiled.
“Montgomery’s bright, richly illustrated chronicle stirs renewed appreciation for human empathy, skill, and wonder and a miraculous winged species.”
The Pima County Library in Tucson, Arizona, suggests that you spend National Pet Day – April 11 – or any day really, with A Good, Good Pig.
Inspired by Becoming a Good Creature, the young writers of the Pierce School in Bennington, New Hampshire, created books of their own. Sy can’t wait to zoom with them, author-to-authors, and tell them how proud she is of their work. Above are two samples.
The new German translation of How to be a Good Creature. In translation “good creature” may have become “mensch”– a good, honorable person. Hmm.
March, 2021
If you happen to tune into New Hampshire Public Television you may catch Sy talking about Becoming a Good Creature. This brief film — 1 minute, 30 seconds — is running between programs. Watch it here.
Hometown Vulture. Condor Comeback is in the Santa Barbara News-Press, the hometown paper for the project which is restoring condors to the wild. Dr. Estelle Sandhaus, the Santa Barbara Zoo’s director of conservation and science, is in charge of the condor project. She stars in Condor Comeback.
Seacoast Bark. What dogs “in the know” are reading right now! (This issue featuring you-know-who and his person.)
Lone Star Octo. Sy was interviewed by Jim McKeown for his show Likely Stories on KWBU, “Heart of Texas Public Radio.” Jim gives The Soul of an Octopus “8 tentacles” (out of 8, we assume). Listen here.
A big thank you to the good folks at The Arts Fuse, a fabulous online guide to the arts in New England, for featuring How to be a Good Creature in its March edition. Read the other excellent recommendations here.
February, 2021
A Double Honor. The nonfiction committee of the Missouri Association of School Librarians has chosen two of Sy’s books for their lists of top twenty best nonfiction books. Condor Comeback is on the list for grades 3 to 5, and The Magnificent Migration is on the list for 6th to 8th graders.
The Dutch translation of The Soul of an Octopus has been published in the Netherlands.
Researching her next book, Sy visits with her buddy Fire Chief, a snapping turtle who is in rehab at a turtle hospital. “Fire Chief looks as big as a dinosaur, but he’s gentle as a puppy,” says Sy. “Here we are at Turtle Rescue League doing physical therapy to help strengthen his legs. He was injured when a truck ran him over.
“Thank you, Matt Patterson for the photo, and Alexxia Bell, Natasha Nowick and Michaela Conder for the great care all the turtles get at Turtle Rescue League.”
Becoming a bestseller. On Sunday, January 17, Becoming a Good Creature will nuzzle its way on to The New York Times Bestseller List for Children’s Picture Books at number 8. Sy thanks Rebecca Green for her superb illustrations and the Salt Project for its beautiful video. If you haven’t seen it, check it out here.
“I learned animals matter.” Sy recently visited The Well School in Peterborough, New Hampshire, via Google Meet. She spoke to two groups of students: Kindergarten through the 4th grade, and then 5th through 8th grade. They had questions about almost every animal on earth, and – no surprise – Sy has met many, many of these animals. They learned about sloths, tigers, sharks, Sy’s dog Thurber, and most of all they learned, as one student said, that “animals matter.”
Oil and acrylic on stretched canvas
Inspired. After reading The Soul of an Octopus, artist Megan Dalziel created this stunning painting showing how the wonder of consciousness connects all life. The combination of an octopus with an extinct triceratops represents the vast diversity of life that has existed on earth. Sy is honored that her book inspired this thoughtful artwork.
December, 2020
Just published. Lisa Dabek has spent her life studying tree kangaroos. Dabek is the senior conservation scientist and director of the Tree Kangaroo Conservation Program at Woodland Park Zoo. And now she has edited an essential book about these beguiling marsupials. Tree Kangaroos: Science and Conservation has twenty seven chapters by the world’s top tree kangaroo researchers, with a final chapter by Sy.
Lucky wrists. “In northern Thailand, a tribal shaman once foretold [Sy’s] future by looking at the pattern of blue veins on her wrists. He said that her wrists ‘were the luckiest wrists he had ever seen.’ Indeed.” Read about the adventures behind Becoming a Good Creature in this charming, short interview in New Hampshire magazine.
Win a book. Do Good. Help wombats and turtles. Deborah Furchtgott writes the lively blog, The Children’s Bookroom. She’s a mother, and a Harvard PhD (in medieval poetry) who is “passionate about children’s literature.” Sy is an “influential author” in her house. And in honor of that The Children’s Bookroom is holding a Thanking Good Creatures giveaway. She writes: “If you donate to one of the following charities (I encourage at least a $10 donation) and email me proof of donation at deborah.furchtgott@gmail.com then I will enter you to win one of these gorgeous books. Deadline: December 31, 2020. I will draw two names at random in the first days of January, 2021, and ship them out the first week of January. I will ship worldwide!
“To win Becoming a Good Creature, please donate to Sleepy Burrows Wombat Sanctuary near Gundaroo in Australia; the donation page is here.
“To win How to Be a Good Creature, please donate to the Turtle Rescue League here in Massachusetts; the donation page is here.
“So, please! Consider making a donation, send me a note with which charity you supported so I know which book you’re entered to win. Again:
- Donate at least $10 to one of the above charities by December 31, 2020
- Email me with your receipt and chosen charity/book
- I will notify you if you win in the first days of January and ship your book shortly afterwards!
“Thank you so much for helping to make the world a better place! And thanks so much to Sy Montgomery and Rebecca Green for their work and for showing all of us, kids and adults, concrete ways to work with our fellow creatures to be better ourselves.”
Sea Turtle Rescue Accomplished. With colleagues from Turtle Rescue League, wildlife artist Matt Patterson and Sy have returned from a 10-mile nighttime patrol along Cape Cod’s stormy beaches. They rescued five highly endangered, cold-stunned Kemp’s Ridley sea turtles. Matt dragged the cold turtles by sled to Audubon’s Wellfleet facility. They will be transfered to New England Aquarium’s Quincy marine animal care facility. All are expected to fully recover.
The Good Good Pig is now in its 21st printing, adding 3000 more copies. There are now more than 120,000 paperbacks in print.
Author and educator Mary Bleckwehl has chosen Becoming a Good Creature as one of her Top 10 Books for 2020. Check out the other great picture books she loves here.
Sy is a character in someone else’s novel! In a German work of fiction titled The Octopus’ Ninth Arm, Sy appears in a chapter in which, with the help of an octopus friend at New England Aquarium, she meets Vladimir Putin and… well, you’ll have to read the book (in German) to find out.
It debuted at number two on the Der Spiegel’s bestseller list. Watch out Putin, the octos are coming.
Becoming a Good Creature is a Number 1 Amazon bestseller in children’s science biography. And:
- Kirkus Reviews picks Good Creature as one of the 20 best middle-grade books for 2020.
- The National Science Teachers’ Association and the Center for Books for Children has selected Condor Comeback as one of the Outstanding Science Trade books of the year.
- It’s been a good year for good creatures.
Sy is delighted that the prestigious Science magazine gave Condor Comeback a wonderful review.
And if you missed the segment on condors on New England Chronicle last week, you can watch it here
November, 2020
Sy spoke via Zoom with the fourth graders of PS 163 in New York City who had read The Tarantula Scientist. They peppered Sy with smart questions for an hour. Elizabeth Bullock, age 9, created this portrait of the “Queen of Nature” to commemorate the occasion. Could this be Sy’s new author photo?
Sy talked with Paul Samuel Dolman, host of the podcast What Matters Most, to discuss Becoming a Good Creature. Listen here.
Condor Comeback is on the Longlist for 2021 AAAS/Subaru SB&F Prize for Excellence in Science Books in the Middle Grades Science.
October, 2020
Ahtapotin Ruhu. Turkish readers will soon be reading this translation of The Soul of an Octopus.
Sy is sporting these festive octo masks thanks to a reader.
Condor Comeback is a one of Publishers Weekly’s Best Books of 2020
Another good creature gets behind Sy’s new book.
A voracious reader visits the River Bookshop in Amherstburg, Ontario. (That’s Canada, y’all.)
Sy enjoyed talking to the blog Rover about Becoming a Good Creature. Read the short interview here.
Becoming a Good Creature is one of 17 children’s titles selected as a Powell’s Pick of the Season.
In honor of Octopus Month (October, of course) OctoKing Warren Carlyle again called upon Sy to address the OctoNation, which is the world’s biggest octopus fan club. Watch the octo-chat on Facebook here.
September, 2020
Becoming a Good Creature. Watch this fabulous short – minute and a half — introduction to the new book filmed by the amazing Salt Project.
Pre-order Becoming a Good Creature from our wonderful local Toadstool Bookshop.
Condor Comeback. Chronicle, Boston’s WCVB-TV’s long running show, visited Sy to create this fine introduction to Sy’s new book. There’s also plenty of Tia Strombeck’s stunning images of everyone’s favorite vulture, and star turns by Thurber, the snapping-turtle extraordinaire Fire Chief, and even the late, beloved pig Christopher Hogwood. Watch it here.
The bear who sniffed a sleeping homeowner’s foot, a baby condor who survived wildfire, and the hummingbirds and monarch butterflies to watch for in your yard – All these showed up in Sy’s discussion on yesterday’s Afternoon Zoo on WGBH radio — along with why people are painting their cow’s butts with eyes. Listen Here:
The Washington Post tells kids about Condor Comeback. Read it here.
Becoming a Good Creature is one of Amazon’s monthly picks for the best children’s nonfiction in September.
August, 2020
Beach reading. Willow, dog about town, studies up for her next swim in Norway Pond.
The Condor book is out and this reader likes what he sees.
Watch Sy and Tia talk about the new book as they show cool pictures of condors here.
Sy talks baby turtles, friendly sharks, sexy frogs, and murder hornets on the Afternoon Zoo on WGBH. Listen here:
New editions. Journey of the Pink Dolphins in a German translation. And everyone’s favorite octopus in a forthcoming Danish translation.
Listening to the audiobook of Soul of an Octopus while recovering from an eye injury, artist Maria Curcic fell in love with Athena, Octavia, Kali and Karma. In their honor she created the painting seen above. Check out her work on Facebook: Maria Curcic Fine Art. And on Instagram: @curcicfineart. Thank you, Maria.
Just published. The Korean edition of Tamed and Untamed: Close Encounters of the Animal Kind by Sy and Elizabeth Marshall Thomas. Don’t let this cat’s stare put you off.
July, 2020
Becoming a Good Creature will be published this September, but until then the publisher, Houghton Mifflin, has created this cool activity guide. See it here.
Sy gets wonderful letters from readers. We liked the look of this crafty critter drawn on this envelope from a reader in Valencia, Spain.
The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books loves Condor Comeback: “It’s a wide-focus take on an environmental success, tempered with patience, the odd condor bite (Montgomery gets nipped helping out with the exams), and setbacks (the first young condors released into the wild were basically adolescent vandals), but ultimately it’s a story of unusual triumph for a species so close to extinction…. Youngsters will be galvanized by the possibilities of this kind of scientific work and keen to find ways to join in.”
And so does ibookdaily.com: “Montgomery’s powerful prose does justice to these ancient, sociable, and elegant creatures. Complete with world-class, full-color photography… Condor Comeback is an inspiring story of groundbreaking science, perseverance, and cooperation.”
The Catch of the Day — on Your Wall. Joe Higgins makes prints of fish “the old-fashioned way, using a technique called gyotaku – applying ink to a fish, placing rice paper over it, and pressing,” says Yankee magazine in a recent tour of artists. One of Higgins’ inspirations is The Soul of an Octopus. That’s one of his prints above. You can see more at: fishedimpressions.comThe Catch of the Day — on Your Wall. Joe Higgins makes prints of fish “the old-fashioned way, using a technique called gyotaku – applying ink to a fish, placing rice paper over it, and pressing,” says Yankee magazine in a recent tour of artists. One of Higgins’ inspirations is The Soul of an Octopus. You can see his art at: fishedimpressions.com
June, 2020
Octo in the City of Angels. The Soul of an Octopus has returned to another West Coast bestseller list. Sy’s octo book is number nine on The Los Angeles Times’ nonfiction paperback bestseller list for May 31.
Two years ago, Sy had the good fortune to speak at Pioneer Works, an artist-run cultural center in Brooklyn. They now have a great new media site, The Broadcast, and have created a series of commemorative bandanas — including this one designed by Andrea Lauer featuring an octopus brain and Sy’s signature. Here’s where you can see (and order) the bandana, listen to Sy’s talk, and read a recent interview.
Yes, that’s one big bug. Meet Jeannie, a Malaysian jungle nymph. Though she’s not a caterpillar herself, she lives at The Caterpillar Lab in Marlborough, New Hampshire, along with thousands of awesome larvae of butterflies and moths. Sy enjoyed her visit with Sam Jaffee. The lab is closed to the public at this time. Check out their Facebook page.
As part of her research for two new books, Sy is volunteering with the Turtle Rescue League. When a mother snapper nested just inches from a big parking lot, Sy was dispatched to excavate eggs so they could be incubated, hatched in captivity, and returned in the wild. She dug up 31 eggs. Just a couple yards away, turtle artist extraordinaire Matt Patterson was digging up eight painted turtle eggs. Those, too, will be incubated, hatched, and returned to the wild as young turtles ready to start their lives.
The wonderful citizen-science group Earthwatch has compiled their researchers’ favorite science and nature books. The list that includes How to be a Good Creature:
“‘I was first introduced to Sy’s incredible writing when I picked up The Soul of an Octopus years ago,’ says Alix Morris, Earthwatch’s director of communications. ‘I was riveted. The way she explores the consciousness of creatures is profound, reminding us how much we still have to learn about the world around us.’
“In the opening of her book How to Be a Good Creature, Montgomery attributes her impressive career as a science writer and naturalist to Earthwatch, and details her first expedition following emus in the Australian Outback. ‘Sy shows us how much we can learn from creatures, how to see and hear the wild world in new ways, and how to better understand and appreciate our place in this universe. Combine this with a heavy dose of humor and poetic prose and you have yourself a fantastic read.’”
See Earthwatch’s other picks here.
Thurber visits Spain – via video. To mark the Spanish publication of How to be a Good Creature, Sy reads a chapter about Thurber, as we see many of his puppy photos with Spanish subtitles:“Sy Montgomery nos habla de Thurber, su border collie, una historia de Cómo ser una buena criatura.” Watch it here.
Octo Art. Twelve-year-old Kaia M. from Plainfield, Illinois, created this window art after reading The Soul of an Octopus with her mom. With her art, her mom wrote, Kaia honors Athena, Octavia and Kali from the book. Thank you, Kaia!
Cephalo-Ed is a work of love and devotion. Gary started this You Tube channel. He’s been studying cephalopods since he was 3 years old when he first saw a Giant Pacific Octopus in a book. It was “unique and exquisite.” He was inspired right then to learn everything he could about octopuses. “They are truly one of the most magnificent animals in the world,” says Gary. And so, by and by, he read The Soul of an Octopus and interviewed Sy, who also loves these “most magnificent animals.” Watch the interview here.
School Library Journal loves Condor Comeback: “Like many of Montgomery’s nonfiction titles in the series, this recent entry does an excellent job of incorporating facts and narrative information about an animal not typically covered in stand-alone titles. The engaging call-to-action message is paired with gorgeous photographs that immerse readers in the condors’ world.”
May, 2020
The California Condor’s stunning and fragile existence swoops into focus in the latest Scientists in the Field title,” says Publishers Weekly in a starred review. “Though the condor’s future remains tenuous, Montgomery’s compelling page-turner inspires optimism.”
Octomom. Radiolab has a great Mother’s Day story: “In 2007, Bruce Robison’s robot submarine stumbled across an octopus settling in to brood her eggs. It seemed like a small moment. But as he went back to visit her, month after month, what began as a simple act of motherhood became a heroic feat that has never been equaled by any known species on Earth.” Sy has a small role in the show as she describes the courtship and mating of octopuses.
Critters Down Under. Sy talked about emus, octopuses and other Good Creatures on Australia’s venerable public radio show, Uncommon Sense. Listen here.
Soul of an Octopus has returned to the bestseller lists. It is number seven on the Boston Globe’s list of nonfiction paperback bestsellers for the week of May 3.
Octo-school. Homeschooling her four kids, Melissa Tuttle of Santa Barbara used Soul of an Octopus for her weekly lesson plans. Among the results is this fine illustration of an episode in the book, executed jointly by artists Henley, 3, and Charlie, 5.
Kirkus gives Condor Comeback a starred review: “Montgomery, no stranger to science in the field” joins the “ongoing California fieldwork in the form of condor checkups. These birds are still so endangered that wildlife specialists attempt to recapture each condor living in the wild every year, to check on its health and tracking devices. In an immediate, present-tense narrative, the writer describes the details of these checkups and some of the hazards: While holding birds, she was pooped on and bitten. They visit a biologist watching a nest site and see a new fledgling. After readers are thoroughly engaged with the birds, the writer steps back to describe continuing dangers…. She touches on the effects of wildfires in the birds’ neighborhoods; visits another nest watch; and talks with a tribal educator with the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians, who revere the condors and are especially interested in their return…. Close-up and long-range photos enliven every page…. Hopeful news in the natural world.”
Condor Comeback will be published in July.
April, 2020
Why did the amphibian cross the road? Sy was out on a warm, rainy April night that was perfect for salamandering. She joined a small brigade to help eight species of amphibians safely cross the road. Since the gorgeous spotted salamanders can live for 20 years, that’s a lot of life we were privileged to save.
Sy sent greetings to her Spanish publishers by talking about book, Spell of a Tiger, which has been translated into Spanish. Watch her short video here and test out your Spanish by reading the subtitles.
Your friendly neighborhood octopus. Fayetteville, Arkansas, artist Graham Patterson has drawn a giant octopus in the street to help cheer up his neighbors during quarantine. Thanks to Dustin Bartholomew of the Fayetteville Flyer and Octo Nation for sharing this Octo Art.
Inky’s Amazing Win. 8,169 students in grades 3 to 5 from 105 Rhode Island schools and libraries have voted, and the results are in: Inky’s Amazing Escape, with illustrations by Amy Schimler-Safford, won the 2020 Rhode Island Children’s Book Award. The breakdown of the vote, and the other great titles nominated, can be found here.
March, 2020
https://teespring.com/stores/octonation
Sy addressed the Nation on March 27. OctoNation, that is — the world’s largest octopus fan club. Answering questions and speaking with founder Warren Carlyle, she appeared live for an hour and a half Facebook event that also raised money for New England Aquarium. Check out OctoNation’s awesome Facebook page.
The Associates of the Boston https://www.facebook.com/TheOctoNation/Public Library will honor Sy as one of its “Literary Lights”—authors and scholars from the Northeast whose contributions to American letters are considered outstanding. Others so honored in the past include William Styron, John Updike, Seamus Heaney, Annie Dillard, E.O. Wilson, Ada Louise Huxtable, and Doris Kearns Goodwin.
The awards gala is the Associates’ biggest fundraiser and supports the preservation of Boston Public Library’s Special Collections, which include a first edition of John James Audubon’s Birds of America, Shakespeare’s First Folio, a score written by Mozart, and one of the world’s most extensive collections of anti-slavery and abolitionist papers. Originally scheduled for April 26, the awards dinner has been postponed to September 20.
February, 2020
Seen in San Francisco’s Browser Books: “If you read only one octopus book this year make this labor of love your baby.”
Sy is delighted to hear from Mel Zukernic, founder of the “Animal Love Library” – Fauna Querida – in Buenos Aires, Argentina, that the Spanish translation of How to be a Good Creature is included in her library. Here’s Mel holding the book. You can find out more about the Animal Love Library on Instagram: www.instagram.com/faunaquerida (which means dear fauna).
Sy will be on Alan Alda’s podcast, Clear and Vivid. Here’s a preview at about 16:20 until 27:26, after Tom Hanks and Paul McCartney. Alan Alda has this to say about Sy: “She’s wonderful. She has that ability to communicate with animals just by standing there and looking at them, and they want to come over to her.”
Sy enjoyed talking with Maria Milito, an advocate for animal rights who can be heard daily on Q104.3 New York’s midday show. Now she has her own podcast, Maria’s Mutts & Stuff. Sy provided the “stuff,” talking about octos, pink dolphins, man eating tigers and man-eating tigers. That’s a lot of cool “stuff.” Listen here.
“Beautiful … profound … transformative”— heady praise for How to be a Good Creature from the folks at the Today Show. Check out the other great books they recommend, too.
The Good Good Pig is still winning friends. His memoir – as grunted and snuffled to Sy – is now in its 20th printing. There are more than 117,000 copies of the paperback in print.
The Travels of a Very Smart Octopus. Inky’s Amazing Escape is a Junior Library Guild Selection.
Sy was a guest again on one of her favorite radio broadcasts, Living on Earth. She was discussing the wonderful stories she chose for Best Science and Nature Writing 2019. Here’s the link to the whole show. (All the stories well worth listening to.)
Octovision. The folks at CBS Sunday Morning are the latest to be charmed by Octopuses:
“Chip Reid visits scientists at New England Aquarium in Boston, and the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass., and talks with Sy Montgomery, author of “The Soul of an Octopus,” about these curious creatures.” Catch the January 12 show here.
OctoDay-by-OctoDay. Wisconsin Public Radio is reading The Soul of an Octopus – the entire book – on their show Chapter a Day.
The Soul of an Octopus has returned to The New York Times Bestseller List! The Octo was swimming at #11 on January 5, and #13 on January 12 on the nonfiction paperback list. A lot of folks must have found Sy’s octo book under their tree this Christmas – or stuffed in eight Christmas stockings.
December, 2019
“Remember back when we were all tubes? Sy Montgomery does.” Sy talks with Leslie Crawford of Truthout about our octopus relatives, and the future of the imperiled earth.
“We are on the cusp of either destroying this sweet, green Earth — or revolutionizing the way we understand the rest of animate creation,” says. “It’s an important time to be writing about the connections we share with our fellow creatures. It’s a great time to be alive.”
And those tubes who are our ancestors? Sy says: “That was a simpler time, eons before the octopus and Homo sapiens went their separate evolutionary ways, and certainly long before that highly intelligent cephalopod, which appeared some 300 million years ago, ended up boiled, stewed and fried. Our lineage goes back a half-billion years ago when everyone was a tube. That was when there were no eyes. Yet we have evolved almost identical eyes. I just love that.” Read the interview.
That Octo story never sleeps. Sy’s story for Orion magazine — back in 2011 — is listed as #1 on Orion magazine’s Top 25 Most-Read Articles of the Decade. The rest of the list is worth investigating.
Octo-Brits. Episode 3 of BBC’s fantastic Earth Podcast explores the senses.Sy talks about touch, and those many-armed masters of touch, octopuses. That’s first up, but be sure to listen to composer Hans Zimmer and soundscape ecologist Bernie Krause speaking about sound. Listen here: http://aca.st/39ce2e
Sy is thrilled that these great kids from her dear friend Joel Glick’s class at Atlantic Bilingual School in Honduras are reading Journey of the Pink Dolphins. She can’t wait to Skype with them when Christmas break is over. Their teacher, Joel, says, “We cannot thank you enough for this generous donation. They are working really hard reading and interpreting your amazing book.”
Good Gnus: The Magnificent Migration: On Safari with Africa’s Last Great Herd is one of Booklist’s “Best of 2019” books.
November, 2019
Honor and glory to wildebeests! Thank you,Washington Post, for choosing The Magnificent Migration as one of the top books for children of the year.
A tale of two Franklins
Sy was greeted by a library full of little octopuses at the Franklin Elementary School in Keene, New Hampshire…
… And on the other side of the country in Port Angeles, Washington, the 5th grade in the Franklin Elementary School there sent these wonderful thank you notes after Sy’s visit.
Kate Missett, a columnist for the Wymong Eagle Tribune wrote this recently about Sy:
I have a friend I’ve never met in person. She is one of my dearest friends, and would immediately fit in with all my friends in Cheyenne. I began corresponding with her four years ago, via email, and something just clicked between us.
She is Sy Montgomery, a New York Times bestselling author. She writes about wild, and not so wild, animals, and travels all over the world to do so. Her best seller about her pet pig, Christopher Hogwood, who grew to over 700 lbs., is hilarious and endearing. Reading The Good, Good Pig was probably sufficient unto itself, but I was highly motivated to continue reading Sy’s books.
I cannot remember the order in which I read them, but my two favorite books by Sy are Journey of the Pink Dolphins and Spell of the Tiger.
The pink dolphins live in the mysterious Amazon River, which is actually two rivers that don’t combine; one is brown and one is blue. There is a high degree of mythology which the people who live beside the river impart to the pink dolphins. It is said they take on the form of a man and join humans along the riverbank, seducing a woman and taking her to live with them under the water. That’s a dizzily marvelous piece of mythology; it would be wonderful to know how it came to be. Do people from the villages actually disappear?
At the end of this book, Sy actually got to swim with the dolphins at the mouth of the Amazon River. I told her that the book should have ended with her permanently swimming with them, and she said that if the book is ever made into a movie that is the way she imagines ending it, too!
Spell of the Tiger is terrifying–and funny, too. The subtitle is The Man-Eaters of Sundarbans. Sundarbans is the largest tidal delta in the world. From Wikipedia, I learned the following:
The Sundarbans is a mangrove area in the delta formed by the confluence of Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna Rivers in the Bay of Bengal. It spans from the Hooghly River in India’s state of West Bengal to the Baleswar River n Bangladesh. It comprises closed and open mangrove forests, agriculturally used land, mudflats and barren land, and is intersected by multiple tidal streams and channels.
It is here that tigers hunt and kill people, not just on land but in the water as well.
I said that the book is funny, too. It is undoubtedly a conundrum that a book about man-eating tigers could be funny, but the red tape Sy encountered in getting access to the Sundarbans reminded me of Major Major in the book and movie Catch 22. The “catch” was that if someone went to Major Major’s office, and Major Major was in his office, the person wanting to see him was told that the Major was out. If Major was out of his office, the person was told he was in. And that’s what the bureaucracy in Calcutta was like for Sy and her companion. After waiting for hours to meet someone in the Forestry Department, they were finally “seen” by someone who totally ignored them and read a newspaper instead.
It struck me as funny and I felt guilty for laughing about a passage in a book about man-eating tigers. Sy assured me it was meant to be funny and that she was glad I “got” it.
But I didn’t really get the gist of the book until weeks later. It was one of those “aha” moments! I recently gave a copy of this book to a friend to see if he would also find the hidden message of this book. It’s not a spoiler for you to know it ahead of time, but it is a magnificent reward to find it yourself. If you really want to know what it is before you read the book, email me and I’ll tell you the message.
It took me years to find this soul mate of mine, but we travelled along similar paths, although mine was through books and hers was through doing. Years before I met Sy through her books, we both developed a love for octopuses. I bought a paperback book about these gentle, intelligent creatures only to find out that Sy had written a blurb for its hardback edition and knew the author. I bought another book about Kanzi, the bonobo chimp who taught himself how to verbally interact with people using symbols, and told Sy about it; she replied that she knew all about Kanzi.
She is friendly and witty and funny. I also have a preoccupation with spiders (I had a cat-faced spider living above my backdoor all last summer), and I jokingly said to Sy, “What are the odds? Spiders and octopuses?” She replied, “I’d say about 8 to 1!”
I have tried and failed to meet with her, but I may have another opportunity in June when I travel with a friend who is attending a college reunion. The reunion is in Middlebury, Vermont, and Sy lives in Hancock, New Hampshire, a distance of less than 150 miles. Even if all I get to do is hug her while crying tears of joy to be finally meeting her in person, the extra miles will be worth it.
Sy sends a big eight-armed hug to the octo-stylin’ librarians of the North Olympic Library system. Thanks for your tentacular outfits, fantastic decorations, and for amassing crowds of avid readers to celebrate octopus friends. Sy visited three fantastic libraries in Port Angeles, Sequim, and Forks, and the wonderful students at Quileute Tribal School in La Push.
The North Olympic Library System embraces The Soul of an Octopus. Sy spoke with 300 fifth graders from five schools at the Port Angeles Public Main Library where sea art greeted her.
October, 2019
* Maria’s Bookshop in Durango, Colorado is celebrating its 35th year as a vibrant, thoughtful independent bookstore by listing their favorite books of the last 35 years. The Soul of an Octopus is on it, as well as many other excellent books. Check out the list.
Noble Dreams is a new podcast that charts “a world of exploration, invitation, conversation, nearly pure imagination, musication.” Sy enjoyed her talk with Noah Chute. Listen here.
Missed out on rats who peek-a-boo and roosters who cock-a-doodle-doo? Here’s the link to Jim Braude and Margery Eagan’s midday talk show on WGBH radio last Wednesday. The Afternoon Zoo — that’s Sy of course — starts at 1:58:39
The thoughts of a fish. The Soul of an Octopus. Sy joined her friend Jonathan Balcombe, author of What A Fish Knows on WWDB’s radioshow, The Other Animals. Listen to a podcast of the show here.
Sy Montgomeryova returns to the Czech Republic. A new Czech translation of The Soul of an Octopus (above) will join the 2001 translation of Journey of the Pink Dolphins. The Czech title is Do Octopuses Have a Soul?
Earlier this year Sy had the great pleasure and challenge of selecting stories for The Best American Science and Writing 2019. In advance of its October publication, Publishers Weekly has given the anthology a good review:
Naturalist Montgomery (How to Be a Good Creature) emphasizes a sense of wide-eyed wonder in this enjoyable anthology. Included are topical pieces such as Linda Villarosa’s investigation into African-American infant mortality rates and Rebecca Mead’s report on a transgender woman undergoing facial surgery. But overall, this collection of 26 essays—from such publications as the Atlantic, Atlas Obscura, the New Yorker, and Pacific Standard—is less concerned with the hot-button issues, such as the rise of artificial intelligence, much discussed in contemporary science writing. There are stories about catching insects in Denmark, tracing hydrocarbon gasses at ancient oracle sites in and near Greece, and hunting down the elusive forms of life in Chile’s Atacama Desert. Often the writing strikes a personal, emotional note: Conor Gearin muses about his upcoming marriage while walking in Iowa’s Hitchcock Nature Center, and Molly Osberg tells of her near-fatal experience with a rare form of strep. Endangered animals (vaquita porpoises in the Gulf of California, right whales in Cape Cod Bay, and rhinos in Cincinnati Zoo) also claim much of the contributors’ attehttp://bit.ly/cw_MagMigrationntion. Readers in need of some substantive escapism will appreciate this offering of the previous year’s finest science and nature writing.
Sy enjoyed talking about The Magnificent Migration with BYU radio. Listen here.
August, 2019
The Unleashed Octopus. Sy loved talking about octos with Creta Pullen and Amanda Eichstaedt, hosts of “Off Leash” on KWMR radio in West Marin, California. Listen here. Sy’s interview starts 1:01:25.
These signs are at the Los Angeles Zoo:
The Chinese edition of How to be a Good Creature is out.
Talkin’ Critters. Sy enjoyed talking to Laura Knoy on NHPR. Listen here or read the transcript.
Good Creature gets the IMAX treatment. Sy spoke about her book at the New England Aquarium’s IMAX theater. Watch her talk here.
Inky’s Amazing Escape has been nominated for a Ladybug Picture Book Award, at the Center for the Book at the New Hampshire State Library.
The further – further — adventures of Heidi, the best friend of turtles everywhere. Heidi, age 10, has raised another $800 for sea turtle rescue and rehab. (See the entry below in August and September 2018 when she raised $1500.) Heidi loves sea turtles. She’s upset that we don’t treat turtles better. When she talks we all listen. Heidi and her oldest sister Lilly (and Mom, Dad and Sy) went to the New England Aquarium to present a check to the aquarium’s veterinarian Dr. Charlie Innis. Heidi & Co. were received like royalty and allowed behind-the-scenes visits with an octopus, snakes and other good creatures.
July, 2019
The Gnu Crew, (almost) all together again: Roger Wood, Dick Estes, Sy, Logan Wood and Elizabeth Marshall Thomas celebrated Sy’s new book The Magnificent Migration at The Toadstool Bookshop in Peterborough, New Hampshire, Saturday. Thanks to the more than 100 friends who joined us. And to the woman in the background whose hard work is its own Gnu Testament, Runi Estes. (Photo by Lysa Leland.)
Beeindruckend! Sy’s book, Vom Magischen Leuchten des Glühwürmchens bei Mitternacht —From the Magical Glow of Fireflies at Midnight, the retitled German edition of The Wild Out Your Window, is shortlisted for a German Science Book of the Year Prize. If you want to vote for it, here’s the website.
Talking about Good Creatures. Sy thanks Heather Goldstone, for her wonderful conversations with guests on Living Lab radio on WGBH yesterday! Folks can hear the whole show here. Sy joins the show at the 34.49 mark. And she also enjoyed talking about the book on WBYU in Utah.
Shark Fever: The Lore of the Great White. Fear of sharks spiked last summer on Cape Cod after a great white shark fatally bit a 26-year-old surfer. While we have a higher risk of getting hit by lightning than killed by a great white shark, people are agitated about sharks. On the Colin McEnroe show, Sy joins George Burgess, Director Emeritus, Florida Program for Shark Research and Curator Emeritus of the International Shark Attack File, and Greg Johnson, a teacher, musician and lifeguard at Nauset Beach in Orleans, Mass. Listen here.
Sy’s friend Snowball The Dancing Cockatoo is in the newa.
Happy BioBlitz Birthday, E. O. Wilson. (His real birthday was June 10.) Get a load of that cake: the one time you put an ant on a cake on purpose. Thank you to all who organized yesterday’s celebration, especially BioBlitz founder, author, naturalist Peter Alden —and thank you Lysa Leland for these great photos.
Hyena Defenders. Is The Lion King fair to hyenas? To ask the question is to answer it. Reporter Jimmy Gutierrez, a friend of all hyenas everywhere, asks Sy to examine Disney’s dissing of hyenas. Listen here around the 10-minute mark.
Sy has just learned the audiobook she read for How to be a Good Creature won an Audiobook Earphone Award — back in January! Many thanks to Kenny Pappaconstantinou at Elephant Audiobooks who did the recording.
June, 2019
Sy is in Ecuador with Deb and Patrick Joyce, meeting pelicans, frigate birds and blue footed boobies above, sea turtles, butterfly fish and mobula rays below, and dolphins on the surface between. They are working on a new book about the scientists who study manta rays. (Thank you for the photos, Patrick.)
Sy enjoyed talking about How to Be a Good Creature with Marcus Smith, host of Constant Wonder on BYU radio. Listen here.
For the hate of dogs. We treat pet dogs with such sentimentality while their wild, endangered relatives are feared and persecuted. Why? Read Sy’s article on wild dholes in Aeon.
May, 2019
Summer, “the season of beach days and barbecues, kayaking and catnapping, hammocks and homemade popsicles. Maybe you’ll be headed to the lake or a tucked-away cottage, even a tent pitched in the backyard. Wherever you go, go prepared. Sunscreen is a must. Bottles of water essential. And never, ever forget to bring a book,” says The New York Times. And one of those books, says the Times, should be How to be a Good Creature.
Sy recently visited the year-old Matschie’s tree kangaroo, Ecki, who was born at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle. Thanks, Lisa Dabek, for introducing Sy, and to Ecki’s wonderful keepers, too.
Sy is honored to have been chosen by Antioch New England’s Environmental Studies Department as the winner of this year’s Environmental Excellence Award. Sy thanked Antioch’s students and teachers for all they do for the environment. You can watch the short video.
Thank you, young readers of Everett, WA, for such a fun morning talking about animals at your fabulous library (with its awesome fish tank).
Two German magazines are out with stories about Sy’s visit:
Up Next: Manta Rays. In June Sy will be joining an expedition off Peru which is studying these beautiful creatures.
April, 2019
Three cities in three days! Highlights of Sy’s German book tour included meeting and following rheas (yes, rheas– giant flightless birds from South America!) who live wild just outside city limits of Lubek; attending the largest literature festival in Europe, LitCologne, with mystery writer Donna Leon, where 700 attended our reading; and hanging out with Donna and bovine, caprine and equine fans for a photo shoot for Stern magazine.
Another boon from Sy’s recent tour in Germany: celebrating publication of yet another of her books in German translation. The Curious Naturalist: Nature’s Everyday Mysteries has become The Magic Glow of Fireflies at Midnight with fresh, new art by Tine Pagenberg.
How to be a Good Creature: A Memoir in Thirteen Animals has been selected as a notable book in the children’s category of the 2018 Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award. Since 1991 this award has honored the legacy of Sigurd Olson, who attended Northland College and is the namesake of the College’s environmental institute, by recognizing writers who seek to carry on his tradition of nature writing.
Sy’s favorite bookstore is nearby. The Toadstool Bookshop in Peterborough, N.H., is a thriving independent bookstore. Sy loves to read at the Toadstool because there will be a large turnout and thoughtful questions.
Willard Williams, who opened the Toadstool in 1972, told the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript in an interview about the many writers who have visited his store:
Q: Over the years, what was the most memorable speaker and how did the audience respond to them?
A: I don’t want to slight anybody who didn’t, but certainly our most successful ones were Howard Mansfield and Sy Montgomery. They’re a couple who live in Hancock, and they’ve each written different kinds of books. Both of them, they’re lots of fun and lots of people come to hear them, too. They give great presentations….
Thank you Willard for such a vibrant, important part of our community.
March, 2019
The “creature a l’intelligence extraordinaire.” The paperback of the French edition will be published in April.
Thank you Donna Leon. The author of the bestselling and beloved Commissario Guido Brunetti mystery series is a fan of The Soul of an Octopus. For the German edition, she said: “Fantastic animal, fantastic book.” And in the New York Times Book Review she said that Sy’s octopus book is “a dream.”
Inky’s Amazing Escape: How a Very Smart Octopus Found His Way Home has been nominated for a Black-Eyed Sysan Book Award by the Maryland Association of School Librarians.
The Hyena Scientists has been selected as a finalist for the 2019 Animal Behavior Society’s Outstanding Children’s Book Award. Children will review the finalists and choose a winner.
What do Animals Think and Feel? Sy joined a panel of experts on The Agenda, a Canadian current affairs program that tackles big issues each week. Watch it here.
February, 2019
As someone who travels a great deal, and has gotten lost more than she’d like, Sy was rooting for Huck, a small steer, just a week old, to find his way out of the woods. Huck’s Way Home is a charming illustrated children’s book by Kristina Rodanas about Huck’s adventures on his journey back to the Billings Farm & Museum in Woodstock, Vermont. Welcome home Huck.
In his day Christopher Hogwood loved to bust out of his pen and see the neighborhood. That pig is still travelling. The Good Good Pig – which stars Mr. Hogwood – is now in its 19th printing. There are more than 115,000 copies of the paperback in print.
Tamed and Untamed is included in a recently published wiki: Works of Non-Fiction That Are Perfect for Animal Lovers. Take a look at the books on the list here. “Founded in 2011, Ezvid Wiki was the world’s first video wiki, and is now among the top 3,000 websites in the United States,” say the folks at this Wiki.
Go Team Hyena. The Hyena Scientist has been selected as an American Library Association Notable Book.
Sy enjoyed talking to John Klyce on his recent podcast Lending Nature a Hand. Listen here.
Sy is back from “the land where deer bark and dogs whistle.” Read about her time at the Earthwatch research site in Thailand. And check out those sporty leech socks that Sy and her fellow researchers are wearing. (And note this sockless dhole.)
How to Be a Good Creature is number 8 on the Boston Globe Bestseller list.
With some new translations soon to be published, The Soul of an Octopus will be available in 13 languages, including, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Romanian, Bulgarian, Polish, Russian, Korean, Japanese, and Chinese.
December, 2018
Watching Wolves. Everyone has a favorite animal. John’s favorite is the wolf. He tells Sy that you can learn about wolves by watching their wolf ways here. Thank you John and your teacher, Rachel Martin, for this suggestion.
Besties. How to Be a Good Creature is on these lists of the best books of 2018: Brain Pickings, Good Morning America, The Washington Post, PRI’s Living on Earth, Brain Pickings, BookPage, The Fold Magazine, BookRiot (best book covers), Cascadia Weekly, Ageist, Iowa Public Radio, GirlBoss, Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, AskMen, Albany Times-Union, Idaho Press-Reader, Bmore Art Journal, Eugene Weekly, Marco Eagle, New Hampshire Union-Leader, WickedLocal Cohasset, Simple Chic Everyday, NPR-affiliate KJZZ (Phoenix), Away to Garden, Northshire Books, One More Page Books, Bookshop Santa Cruz, Coast Outer Banks, Quail Ridge Books, Little Professor Books, The Book Jam, Left Bank Books, Eight Cousins, Camp Kansas City, and Booksmith.
Sy is going to the dogs – and wombats are why. In January Sy will join an Earthwatch expedition studying wild dogs in Thailand. Here’s what she wrote for Earthwatch:
Nearly 36 years ago, wombats changed my life.
After five years working as a science journalist at a daily newspaper, my father gave me the gift of my dreams: a plane ticket to Australia. I’d always wanted to go. No other land boasts so many marsupials – mammals whose tiny, undeveloped young, and sweet belly pockets to hold them, had fascinated me since childhood. But what to do once I got there? I discovered Earthwatch, and joined an expedition with Brookfield Zoo’s respected research biologist, Dr. Pamela Parker, studying the underground lives of the southern hairy-nosed wombat at Blanchetown Conservation Park in South Australia.
A lot of our work involved counting fecal pellets. But I could not have been more riveted by the work. I loved the outback. I loved the animals. I loved the science. I loved falling asleep in my tent with the smell of eucalypt smoke in my hair, and waking to sunrises streaked with flocks of pink and grey parrots.
At the end of our two weeks together, Dr. Parker told me she wished I could come back — though she couldn’t hire me, or even pay my way if I wanted to volunteer again. But if I ever wanted to come study any animals at the park, she said, I’d always be welcome at her camp, and she would give me food.
So I quit my job and moved to a tent in the outback.
This is how I began a career off the beaten track. Since then, I’ve swum with piranhas, pink dolphins and electric eels in the Amazon, hiked the Altai mountains of Mongolia looking for snow leopards, and worked in a pit with 18,000 snakes. In Borneo, I’ve been undressed by a curious orangutan. In New Guinea, I helped radio collar tree kangaroos. In French Guyana, I held my (first) wild tarantula. I’ve been hunted by a swimming tiger, chased by a silverback gorilla, and embraced by several giant Pacific octopuses — and meanwhile written 25 books on animals and nature for adults and children, thousands of articles, and scripts for National Geographic TV. I’ve never looked back.
But all this time, I have ever been grateful to Earthwatch. And not just for that first expedition. In the ensuing decades, research for several of my books (including the one with the 18,000 snakes) has intersected with Earthwatch teams.
And now, to my delight, I am heading out with Earthwatch again. Thanks to a generous Earthwatch Communications Fellowship, this January I am looking forward to joining an Earthwatch team on the expedition Tracking Asiatic Wild Dogs in Thailand with principal investigators Drs. Ronglarp Sukmasuang and Nucharin Songsasen in Khao Yai National Park.
Asiatic wild dogs, also known as dholes, are one of the world’s most endangered canids, and also one of the most enigmatic. Red-coated and bushy-tailed, they look a bit like foxes. But other than their appearance, they are nothing like our familiar vulpines — or any other dog on Earth.
Dholes don’t bark, yip or howl. They whistle. They thrive among leopards, bears, and tigers. They can run 45 miles per hour, leap seven feet into the air (to get their bearings as they hunt!), and are excellent swimmers.
But despite their rarity, in many areas, dholes are considered pests. I’m honored to be able to work on a team that will help figure out how much food and room these whistling dogs need to survive, and how best to protect them.
Sy will be sharing the experience by posting blogs from the field. She can’t wait to tell you about her adventure.
People Magazine picks How to Be a Good Creature as one of the best new books of the year.
The Hyena Scientist has been chosen for this year’s Kirkus Reviews Best Books list.
How to Be a Good Creature is back on The New York Times Monthly Science Bestseller list at number 6.
Best Book Cover. Take a bow Rebecca Green for your fine work on the cover of How to Be a Good Creature. Book Riot has chosen it as one of the best book covers of the year.
November, 2018
Take at look at what the first bookstore customer is reading in this CBS News story on how indy bookstores are booming.
The German magazine, Bild der Wissenschaft – Picture of Science – has chosen the German translation of The Soul of an Octopus — Rendezvous mit einem Oktopus – as the best non-fiction of 2018 in their entertainment category.
Another Octo Convert. K. D. Miller is a Canadian writer who has won a following with her short story collections, including All Saints and Late Breaking. Recently Miller was interviewed about her favorite books. What book are you an “evangelist” for? she was asked. Miller replied, “The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery. I couldn’t believe I was reading a whole book about cephalopods. Montgomery is a wonderful nature writer. She was one of the models for a character in my latest book – a woman who writes about spiders, bats and other things most people want nothing to do with. The Soul of an Octopus is proof that you can write about anything, anything at all, and, provided you do it with sufficient authority and skill, you’ll have people turning the pages.”
Inky-mania! Young fans Maddie and Harper paint their homage to Inky.
Inky’s Amazing Escape is Amazon’s pick for the best children’s nonfiction book of 2018.
Octo Wine. Two bottles of very appropriately labeled wine from a celebratory dinner at Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas, where Sy had the privilege of speaking. “Here’s to teachers, students, mollusks and raptors: Cheers!,” says Sy.
While in Arksansas to talk to students at Hendrix College, Sy enjoyed her visit to Raptor Rehab of Central Arkansas.
How to Be a Good Creature starts its second month on the New York Times Monthly Science Bestseller list.
Brain Pickings. Each week Maria Popova’s hundreds of thousands of readers wait for her thoughtful dispatches on art, science, philosophy, and other subjects. Last Sunday the subject of Brain Pickings was emus, pigs, tarantulas, Border Collies, and some of the other animals that grace Sy’s latest book, How to Be a Good Creature. Maria gets to the essence of the book. Sy, she writes, is “one of the most poetic science writers of our time.”
October, 2018
Texas Two-Step: Jellyfish and Bats. Sy’s visit to the fabulous Texas Book Festival brought a reunion with Spineless author Juli Berwald – her book is about jellyfish – and gave Sy a chance to meet native bats at the Austin Bat Refuge with her new friends, the refuge’s founders, Dianne Odegard and Lee MacKenzie. (But no actual country/western dancing, doing the Texas Two-Step.)
Sy was at the Nature Literature Festival in Barcelona in October where she met three of these Iberian wild boars. (We don’t know if these boars are publishers, editors, or writers.) They were grunting happily and wagging their tails as they dug up grass with their flexible nose disks. “Must have been a blessing from Christopher Hogwood,” says Sy. Her Spanish publisher flew her to Spain to celebrate the new Spanish translation of Spell of the Tiger.
Bestseller. How to be a Good Creature debuts at #9 on The New York Times Hardcover Nonfiction list for October 14.
People magazine has listed How to Be A Good Creature as one of The Best New Books of the year.
Inky’s Amazing Escape is a Powell’s Books Holiday Pick for 2018. “It’s perfect for curious kids and budding naturalists,” says Powell’s, the renowned Portland, Oregon, bookstore.
Pulpos to the People! The Spanish edition of Soul of an Octopus has arrived, and flowers from Sy’s editor at Houghton Mifflin, the amazing Kate O’Sullivan.
How to be a Good Creature is #10 on New York Times Monthly Bestseller list for science books.
September, 2018
Portrait of a Critic at Work. This young reader has just received a copy of Sy’s new children’s picture book, Inky’s Amazing Escape. The verdict? She likes what she sees.
The further adventures of Heidi, the best friend of turtles everywhere. Heidi, age 10, raised nearly $600 for sea turtle rescue and rehab. (See the entry below in August.) Heidi loves sea turtles. She’s upset that we don’t treat turtles better. On the last day of her summer vacation, Heidi went to the New England Aquarium to present a check to the aquarium’s veterinarian Dr. Charlie Innis. To celebrate, she got a hug and a squeeze from the aquarium’s male giant Pacific octopus, Professor Ludvig von Drake. And she fed leaves of lettuce to a very appreciative Myrtle, the 550-pound green sea turtle who reigns as the Queen of the aquarium’s Giant Ocean Tank.
Rescued and released. Sy recently helped release baby turtles. The turtles were hatched in the wild from nests carefully guarded by citizens with permits from state authorities. Sy, and acclaimed wildlife artist Matt Patterson, hand-carried the babies to release sites in habitats approved by biologists. (That’s Matt’s hand holding two turtles.) Too many turtles are endangered by poachers and innocent kids who just want a pet. So please: Do help a turtle cross the road, but don’t take a turtle home from the wil
Big crowd for Octopus and Jellyfish. Scenes from National Book Festival in Washington D.C. on September 1. A large crowd of over 1,000 heard Sy (that’s her in the middle) along with Juli Berwald, author of a book about jellyfish, Spineless (right) and the moderator, NPR Commentator Linda Holmes (left).
The Octo Ministry Continues. How to cap off a perfect weekend after the National Book Festival in Washington? With a visit with the unnamed young male Giant Pacific Octopus at the National Aquarium in Baltimore. Sy sends many thanks to aquarist Peter Larson and volunteers Phil Wujek and Mike O’Connell. And guess what’s on offer at the aquarium gift shop? (Hint: a certain soulful octopus book.)
Birds of a (Clay) Feather. Helen Weiser is a potter and pottery instructor in British Columbia. She’s new to Sy’s books. She began with Birdology, which was recommended to her. She enjoyed it and decided to display the book at recent pottery exhibit with three of her “Gooney Birds” at the local library in West Vancouver.
August, 2018
Find Your Own Amazon Adventure. Sy’s friend, teacher Marion Magill, has developed a fabulous virtual tour of the Amazon, ideal for classrooms or just for fun. Sy is one of the guides. The New England Aquarium’s Scott Dowd, star of Sy’s book, Amazon Adventure, is another guide; and a third guide is Anna Magill, Sy’s teenage friend, to whom The Soul of an Octopus is dedicated. Here’s the link. Enjoy your trip—and it’s free!
\
Reading Buddies. Jayden, age 12, sits down to read The Good Good Pig with his dog Monty, who is named after Sy.
A turtle’s best friend. Sy meets some amazing people in her travels. When she spoke at a nearby elementary school she met Heidi, age 10. Heidi loves sea turtles. She’s upset that we don’t treat turtles better. She is raising money to help sea turtle rescue at the New England Aquarium. She made art and eco-bags and sold them at a booth in her town. (That’s Heidi’s mom, dad, and three sisters in the second photo — what a great team.) And this is just a start, Sy says. This girl is a whirlwind!
Liz and Sy recently read at the Norwich, Vermont, bookstore. You can watch them here.
July, 2018
The Good Good Pig is now in its 18th printing. Some pig!
Spanish Tiger. Sy’s book about the man-eating tigers of the largest mangrove swamp on earth, Spell of the Tiger, will be published in Spain this September.
What baby needs food every 20 minutes — but if you feed him too much, he could pop? While at the fabulous Santa Barbara Zoo, Sy recorded two short interviews – three minutes each — with her friend the host Dean Noble, which aired on Zoological Radio.
June, 2018
Condor Comeback. Sy is at the Bitter Creek National Wildlife Refuge to work with U.S. Fish and Wildlife, the Santa Barbara Zoo, and others doing health checks for Southern California’s condors. Here, handsome 10-year-old condor male 480 gets the spa treatment. Photo by the talented Tia Strombeck, whose work will illustrate Sy’s new Scientists in the Field book, Condor Comeback.
A Vulture for Supervisor. A youngster finds a good perch from which to watch biologists and volunteers conduct health and telemetry checks on 16 of his fellow condors at the Bitter Creek National Wildlife Refuge. Sy got to help (and got pooped on twice– no small matter for America’s largest land bird). Thanks for sharing the photo, Estelle Sandhaus.
May, 2018
The Art of the Octopus. The Children & the Arts Festival parade in Peterborough, NH, starts with a big parade of giant puppets. This year’s theme was Under the Sea, so Hancock Library Director Amy Markus and her merry band created this giant octo honoring, The Soul of an Octopus. “We also sang Octopus’s Garden as we walked,” says Amy. “It was fab.”
All Hyena Radio. Sy joined Jim Braude and Margery Eagan to talk about Hyenas on WGBH radio. Listen to whole show here. On NHPR’s Word of Mouth, Hyena fan Jimmy Gutierrez visited Sy and Thurber at home. Thurber serenaded Jimmy by singing along to his favorite music. Hear Thurber’s debut at 32:18. Hyenas are Jimmy favorite animal, but after his visit, Sy hopes that Thurber has nosed his way on to Jimmy’s list.
Pulpos to the People. The Spanish edition of The Soul of an Octopus will be published in October. Here’s a first look at the cover.
Book Riot has named The Soul of an Octopus as one of its 50 Best Nature Books. “If you didn’t think ‘page-turning adventure’ and ‘hallucinatory’ could be used to describe a book about octopus intelligence, then you should read this book,” says Book Riot. Sy is honored to join so many authors on the list that she admires, including Barbara J. King (How Animals Grieve), Julie Zinkefoose (Bluebird Effect), Temple Grandin (Animals in Translation), and Dava Sobel (Galileo’s Daughter).What a great group! Read the entire list here.
In the May 1 Washington Post, Sy will change your mind about hyenas: “Sy Montgomery thinks hyenas have gotten a bad reputation. They are, it turns out, great hunters, not the skulking scavengers of “The Lion King.” They are also very social creatures and express themselves through a variety of sounds, not just what seem like hysterical giggles.” This is the first review of The Hyena Scientist. Read it here.
April, 2018
Sy received a royal welcome April 20 to Wendover School in Greensburgh, Pa. The 6th, 7th and 8th graders made more than 200 posters inspired by her work and travels, which are displayed throughout the school. Leading up to the visit, students watched videos, read interviews, and studied Sy’s books and the animals who inspired them. Thanks to the incredible staff at the school, especially librarian Beth McGuire students see authors as awesome as rock stars!
Good Creatures All. Sy is delighted to be on the front page of today’s Wall St. Journal in the company of many other fine books about animals: “My Beloved Octopus: Animal Memoirs Move Way Beyond Cats and Dogs.”
And the lead of the story:
In her book “How to Be a Good Creature,” Sy Montgomery gains rare insight into her late mother after a wild ermine rips the head off one of the author’s chickens.
“She was, in her way, as fierce as that ermine,” Ms. Montgomery writes in her memoir about lessons she has learned from 13 different animals. After seeing the voracious creature, she writes, her heart “flooded with the balm of forgiveness” for her mother.
Sy enjoyed her visit to Newport, Oregon, where she was met by 100 octo-devotees at the Newport Public library and 300 fans at the Eugene Public Library. Sy was visiting because of the good work of Newport Reads! during which the entire community is invited to read and discuss one book, in this case a certain book about octopuses. The above display was created by Linda Anable from facts and materials provided by Lance Beck and Evonne Mochon-Collura. And below, Sy visits with Cleo at the Oregon Coast Aquarium. Thank you all for the great visit.
Coming in September: How to be a Good Creature. In her new book Sy tells us about the personalities and quirks of 13 animals—her friends—who have profoundly affected her.
“What have animals taught me about life?” Sy asks in the book’s introduction.
Her answer: “How to be a good creature.”
“All the animals I’ve known—from the first bug I must have spied as an infant, to the moon bears I met in Southeast Asia, to the spotted hyenas I got to know in Kenya—have been good creatures. Each individual is a marvel and perfect in his or her own way. Just being with any animal is edifying, for each has a knowing that surpasses human understanding….
“Knowing someone who belongs to another species can enlarge your soul in surprising ways. In these pages you’ll meet animals who changed my life by the briefest of meetings. You’ll meet others who become members of my family. Some are dogs who shared our home. One’s a pig who lived in our barn. Three are huge flightless birds, two are tree kangaroos, and there’s also a spider, a weasel, and an octopus.
“I am still learning how to be a good creature. I try earnestly, but, perhaps like you, too, I often fail. But I am having a great life trying—a life exploring this sweet green world, and returning to a home where I am blessed with a multispecies family offering me comfort and joy beyond my wildest dreams.”
Kangaroo Training. The Tree Kangaroo Conservation Program features Sy’s Quest for the Tree Kangaroo in its excellent Junior Ranger Training program, here in the Papua New Guinea mountain village of Westkokop. Photo by Danny Sama.
Seen at Out of the Blue, a gift shop on Big Pine Key in Florida. Thanks to Elizabeth Hunter Lavallee for taking on the hard work of winter reconnaissance in Florida.
March, 2018
The John Burroughs Association has awarded the 2018 Riverby Award to Amazon Adventure. “The Riverby Award recognizes exceptional nonfiction natural history books for young readers. The books selected present perceptive and artistic accounts of direct experiences in nature and invite young readers to explore the natural world for themselves.” Amazon Adventure is one of five books honored with the Riverby Award in 2018.
Sy enjoyed talking about Tamed & Untamed on the Mongabay podcast.
Mongabay brings its listeners “news and inspiration from nature’s frontline.”
You can hear Sy here or find Mongabay on Spotify.
February, 2018
The popular German women’s magazine, Tina, joins in the Octo Mania with this story about Sy and The Soul of an Octopus.
Octo keeps swimming. The Soul of an Octopus is number 3 on the list of nonfiction bestsellers in the Bay Area.
We’re late on this. Last year the Berlin Medical History Museum presented an exhibit called: The Soul is an Octopus: Ancient Ideas of Life and the Body.
The exhibit examined the “ancient conceptions of the soul and its interaction with the human body. In Graeco-Roman thought the soul was not only the basis of an individual person’s thinking, feeling or moral character. It was also a biological principle that gave life and structure to the body….
“The exhibit asked “three important questions that were central to classical philosophers and physicians alike:
- What is the ruling part of the soul?
- Where does it reside?
- How does it communicate with the body?
“In short what did it mean “to be ‘ensouled’ in ancient times.”
Coming in February to bookstores in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novogorod, Omsk, Kazan, and elsewhere, the Russian edition of The Soul of an Octopus.
“Bearing Arms: The Amazing World of the Octopus.” Sy enjoyed talking about octopuses on the NPR show 1A. She was on with Danna Staaf, author of Squid Empire, and Kelley Voss, a doctoral student at the University of California at Santa Cruz’s Mehta Lab in the department of ecology and evolutionary biology. (1A is produced by WAMU 88.5 and is distributed by NPR.) Listen here.
Coming in May, a new book in the Scientists in the Field series:
December, 2017
Octo on the list. The end of the year is the time for reading lists. Former Congressman Steve Israel (D-N.Y. 2001 to 2017) asked his old colleagues in the House to tell him about books that they read this year for “insight, knowledge and, yes, escape.” Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) enjoyed reading The Soul of an Octopus because it’s “a fun and fascinating diversion from the political stuff I usually read. It’s about a biologist’s relationship and attachment to octopuses. Amazing animals, octopuses posses powers of thinking and feeling far beyond anything I knew.” (Image from Alternate Histories on Etsy.)
Check out Freya on the move. “Freya,” the octopus you can now see at the New England Aquarium “seems to have strong opinions about some things. For example, she’ll grab the magnetic glass cleaner from her side of the glass when she decides it is not time to clean the glass. Her personality definitely shines through the glass,” say the folks at the aquarium. They’d love it if you’d come “meet this spunky new addition to the Olympic Coast exhibit.”
When Sy was in New York recently talking at the 92nd St. Y with Elizabeth Marshall Thomas and Barbra J. King, she was treated to a tour of The Butterfly Conservatory at the Museum of Natural History. Reader and museum volunteer Sandya Satia was a gracious guide. In the photo Sy enjoys a visit from a Blue Morpho and a Magnificent Owl.
Tamed and Untamed is the number one bestselling paperback at the Concord Bookshop in Concord, Massachusetts.
Sy was delighted to be on Brendan O’Meara’s Creative Nonfiction podcast. http://brendanomeara.com/montgomery79/ She told Brendan: “I have never picked the safe option and I have never regretted choosing what I’ve chosen ever.” After the show Brendan said, “Frankly, I came away from this conversation feeling good, just good, and the people who make you feel that way are the people you want to surround yourself with. I know I ended that sentence with a preposition, but whatever.”
Rendezvous mit einem Oktopus is popular in Germany. The German translation has just gone back for its fifth printing.
Spanish Octo on the way. Seix Barral, an imprint of Planeta, will be bringing a translation of The Soul of an Octopus to Spain.
The Good Good Pig paperback edition is now in its 17th printing.
Tamed and Untamed has crossed the pond. The Daily Mail in London has named Tamed and Untamed as one of the Best Reads of the Year, calling it “a charming collection of short, sometimes funny and occasionally eccentric essays.”
Un Animal Fantastique. The cover for French edition of The Soul of an Octopus is here. The “livre fantastique” will be published in April 2018.
Love of spiders. The fourth graders in Megan Popp’s and Christine Wittig’s class at PS/MS 200 in Flushing, Queens enjoyed The Tarantula Scientist. The class wrote Sy beautiful letters, and they are now pen pals with Sy. One student, Rochelle, wrote: “I really love your book and before I read it I hated spiders…Sam Marshall was a big help and taught me to learn about how important spiders are.”
November, 2017
Vulture Days. This is the view from the condor pen on a recent morning at the Bitter Creek National Wildlife Refuge in California. Sy is researching a new book about the critically endangered California Condor. Estelle Sandhaus took this photo through binoculars. Sandhaus is the Director of Conservation and Research at the Santa Barbara Zoo. Sy is also working with photographer Tia Strombeck as they create a new entry in Scientists in the Field series.
And here Sy is holding Condor 771, a “sub-adult” female, to be exact. She’s getting her health and telemetry check, as does every precious California alive on Earth, thanks to cooperation between the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Santa Barbara Zoo, and others.
Sy had a great visit with the students at the Moharimet School in Madbury, New Hampshire. Mrs. Schmitt’s third grade class sent Sy home with a pile of drawings of the animals they love. A few of them are here.
Born to be Wild. Here is the identifying plumage of the Tamed & Untamed authors. Spot them when they come to your bookstore.
Tamed and Untamed is a bestseller. For the week ending October 29, 2017, Tamed and Untamed is number 6 on the trade paperback nonfiction list of the New England Independent Booksellers Association’s IndieBound Bestsellers.
Listen to Sy and Liz talk critters on KGNU, an independent community radio station in the Boulder-Denver metro area.
The New Statesman magazine asks: “Have we underestimated the octopus? Far from a childhood memory from a Disney film, or something tasty on your plate in a seafood restaurant, the wriggling cephalopod is suddenly in the news. One might be forgiven for thinking some mollusc mastermind was running a very successful PR campaign. But it’s not as if the animals have just started doing all this stuff – they’ve been around for 300 million years. It’s just that we’ve taken a long time to realise it.” Read more here.
October, 2017
Liz and Sy thank the Norwich Bookstore for having them come by to read. The turn-out far exceeded the small store, so everyone gathered in a nearby church.
Artist Hannah Ellingwood recently went to the New England Aquarium with Sy (the writer) to meet Sy the Octopus. Hannah says: “Putting my hand into the water and having Sy reach out to explore me with her suckers was such an experience and I was excited to create my first octopus cut out inspired by her! Much thanks to Sy Montgomery for introducing me to Sy the octo!” See more of Hannah’s cut-out art on Instagram.
Tiny Fish, Big Honor. Amazon Adventure: How Tiny Fish are Saving the World’s Largest Rainforest is a Junior Library Guild Selection for Fall 2017.
Liz and Sy talk about their friendship in The Valley News: “She was what I wanted to be when I grew up,” Montgomery said this week, during a telephone conversation from her farm in Hancock, N.H. “From the first time we met, the thing that we shared was an understanding that animals can think and feel and know. That was — and something not everyone could agree upon — that all animals were a ‘who,’ not a ‘that.’ A ‘he’ or a ‘she,’ not an ‘it.’ ”
It’s “Famous Day” at school today. Young reader Natalie picks her favorite “famous” person – Sy.
Sy talks about what most people don’t know about animal intelligence for Care2, “the world’s largest social network for good… with over 40 million standing together, starting petitions and sharing stories that inspire action.” And Elizabeth Marshall Thomas and Sy talk about “anthrophobia” and our shared lives with animals on NHPR’s Word of Mouth.
The Soul of a Naturalist. “Montgomery has brought us closer to the consciousnesses of the animals with whom we share our world,” says literary magazine Tin House. “The result is a body of writing that is as rigorous in its thinking as it is enchanting, and that our planet in environmental crisis is lucky to have. It was an honor to speak with one of our greatest naturalists—and one who takes dance lessons with her dog, to boot.” Sy had a lovely time talking with associate editor Emma Komlos-Hrobsky. Read the Tin House interview.
Sy and Elizabeth Marshall Thomas talked with Steve Curwood, the host of Living on Earth about their new book, Tamed & Untamed. As Sy told Steve: “What we’re saying in this book and every single essay, whether it’s about hyraxes – these little groundhog-sized relatives of elephants who live in Africa – or an octopus at the New England Aquarium or the dog at your feet, these lives are so fascinating, so intricate, so mysterious, so thrilling, and so worthy of our respect and affection and awe.” Listen to the interview.
Octopus is the Solution. The New York Times Acrostic Solution for Sunday, October 1, 2017 was based on this: “(SY) MONTGOMERY, (THE) SOUL OF AN OCTOPUS — Here is an animal with venom like a snake, a beak like a parrot, and ink like an old-fashioned pen. It can… stretch as long as a car, yet it can pour its baggy, boneless body through an opening the size of an orange.”
September, 2017
Three scientists starring in three of Sy’s Scientists in the Field titles have been nominated for the Indianapolis Prize, one of the most prestigious honors in conservation. Scott Dowd, featured in Sy’s latest kids book, Amazon Adventure; Lisa Dabek, star of Quest for the Tree Kangaroo, and Laurie Marker, subject of Chasing Cheetahs, all made the cut to be considered for the prize honoring the most successful conservationist in the world. Congratulations to these wonderful friends on this recognition for their crucial work saving animals.
Rendezvous mit einem Oktopus. The Soul of an Octopus is a bestseller in Germany. It debuted this week at #12 on the Spiegel bestseller list. Extrem schlau, as the book’s subtitle says, Extremely smart.
Octo Returns. The Soul of the Octopus has bobbed up at number 9 on The Boston Globe’s nonfiction paperback best seller list, leaving us to ask: Is this good for the Sox?
August, 2017
Jannine Pizarro and daughters Madeline, 5 and Natalie, 4 brought their octo-paintings to Sy’s talk and signing at Stoddard, NH’s Town Hall on August 4. Their treasured octo-portraits now adorn the walls at Sy’s home.
July, 2017
Sy has been out and about talking about her new book for young adults, Amazon Adventure. You can hear her in this short interview on WGBH, along with the subject of the book, Scott Dowd, Senior Aquarist at the New England Aquarium. For more than 20 years, Dowd and his colleagues having been working with the native people to save many of the fish that make their way to North America’s home aquariums. Amazon Adventure tells the surprising journey of these small fish.
While at the aquarium, OctoNation caught up with Sy. She fields a few questions in this short video. OctoNation is the largest Octopus Fan Club with 83,900 followers on Instagram and 32,500 followers on Facebook. That’s one of their t-shirts below.
Sy also spoke to the BBC for the show, Natural Histories: Octopus. This “programme” (as our English friends spell it) will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Tuesday 15 August at 11am, and repeated at 9pm the following Monday. It’ll be kept on the BBC iplayer and be available to download until September 15.
The Octopus and the Professor. The summer reading list of former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich is, as you’d imagine, long on weighty political books and studies of inequality, but he’s been immersed in a “fascinating book by a fellow named Sy Montgomery.”
“I, never, personally have been terribly interested in octopuses,” Reich admits, “but this is an absolutely fascinating, interesting, enjoyable, thought-provoking, piece of work.” To which we can only add that if you haven’t seen Reich’s documentary Inequality for All, you’re missing the best concise explanation of this problem, and the best use of graphics to explain statistics. Inequality for All is as swiftly told as a thriller or a murder mystery.
As part of the celebration of Henry David Thoreau’s 200th birthday, Sy was honored to receive the Henry David Thoreau Prize from PEN New England, a chapter of PEN America. The Thoreau Prize is awarded annually to “a writer demonstrating literary excellence in nature writing.” Previous winners include Gretel Ehrlich, E. O. Wilson, Gary Snyder, Peter Matthiessen, Diane Ackerman, and Linda Hogan.
Bella Polpo. Ricca, a publisher in Rome, has just bought the rights to publish The Soul of an Octopus (or Polpo) in Italy. And a publisher has just signed up to translate Journey of the Pink Dolphins into Chinese.
The Korean edition will be out soon. Here’s the cover:
June, 2017
The Andrew Luck Book Club. Sy enjoyed talking with Andrew Luck, the Indianapolis Colts quarterback, about The Soul of an Octopus. You can hear Andrew and Sy discuss play-action passes, scrambling on third-and-long, and protecting the pocket. Actually, no. It’s all octos and Mr. QB asks good questions.
Brain Pickings. The nimble Maria Popova has gained a large following for her discussions of fascinating thinkers, artists, and writers. Recently writing about the “central mystery of consciousness,” Popova referred to The Soul of an Octopus, which she also wrote about in earlier post.
The wonders of inner lives. Coco and her mom, Jessica, are reading The Soul of an Octopus. Coco is 11 years old. She has autism and Rett Syndrome. She doesn’t speak, and until two years ago everyone thought she was nonverbal, says Jessica. But then Jessica discovered a way for Coco to communicate by pointing at big capital letters on a clear sheet. Coco goes letter-by-letter until she has completed her thought. “Now we know she is highly verbal and has been misunderstood her whole life (and is still so misunderstood by many),” says Jessica.
They are having a good time reading Sy’s book. “She is really identifying with these octopuses!” says Jessica. Here are Coco’s thoughts about three different parts of the book:
“Octopuses are awesome. Octopuses are clearly more intelligent than they look. Autistic people are also more intelligent than they look. Besides autistics there are probably many other creatures who are misjudged because they look or move differently than what humans consider to be normal. Seeing the truth about someone when it contradicts what you always thought might be scary for some. Leaving behind long held assumptions can be difficult because doing so can feel antithetical to our core beliefs.
“Dying octopuses can become violent. People can easily misunderstand octopus behavior . They are a lot like humans yet so alien to us too. Can we presume to understand these creatures? Getting to know them is a first step. Having been misunderstood my whole life has made me particularly sensitive to this.
“Do animals feel what we feel? Do they attain wisdom through life experiences like humans? Scientists have looked for evidence except they are assuming that behaviors are the only indicators of the internal workings of the creatures they are studying. I am a creature whose behaviors are closely monitored. Bcbas [Board Certified Behavior Analysts] track and analyze my behaviors. So do they know my mind? Dare I say certainly not. I behave in ways that can be confusing. I scream sometimes when nothing is wrong. I pull hair when I want kids to like me. Once my cat came up for a pet and I picked her up by the tail. Never would I want to hurt her. I love her. My hare brained compulsions do not add up to the sum total of my intellect. Speaking of hares, who is to say that they do not have brilliant brains? It’s time we humans stopped making assumptions that are unfair and unfounded. Calling a bunch of ignorant observations data does not make it scientific fact. There are wonders and inner lives in all animals and people.”
Thank you Coco and Jessica. Sy loved hearing from you.
The most wonderful things just show up in Sy’s mail. These games were created by a reader in Poland, graphic designer Magdalena Stadnik. She had read the Polish translation of Journey of the Pink Dolphins. “I love it,” she wrote. “The book is un-put-downable magic.” The game Creatures include beautiful and endangered animals like the hirola, the gharial and the indri. Another game, Spectres, highlights animals who recently went extinct. Each species is represented in beautiful detail on black and white cardboard cards. To play, you put all the cards showing the animals face down next to one another. Turn over any two; if they’re identical, collect them and reveal another two. If different, put them back where you found them, and let another player take a turn. Your aim, like Noah’s, is to collect matching pairs. The player with the most matching pairs wins.
Dear Match Book: What Books Best Capture Science and Nature? Match Book is a New York Times dating service for readers looking for a good book. (You know the plot: Book club seeks a good book, meets a good book thanks to the Times, and the rest is a page-turning happily ever after.) One science book that Match Book suggests? The Soul of an Octopus.
May, 2017
The Soul of an Octopus is #4 on the Pacific Northwest Independent Bestseller list of nonfiction paperbacks for May 28.
What do NFL Quarterbacks do in the off season? Andrew Luck is reading The Soul of an Octopus. Top that Tom Brady.
Bank Street College of Education has chosen The Great White Shark Scientist as one of the Best Children’s Books of 2017.
New translations on the way. ART Grup Editorial has signed up to publish The Soul of an Octopus in Romania. And a Spanish publisher will bring The Spell of a Tiger to that country.
April, 2017
Sy spoke at the Boston March for Science. She was speaking to kids and teens, to future scientists:
I want to tell you about a very special place I visited a few years ago.
It was on New Guinea—a place that has been called a Stone Age Island. Located north of Australia, it’s been known as “a lost world,” “a land that time forgot”. New Guinea was mostly unexplored by outsiders till the middle of the 20th century, for a number of excellent reasons: Tangled jungles. Steep mountains. Erupting volcanoes. Aggressive crocodiles. Poisonous snakes. Tropical diseases. Also, cannibalism and headhunting.
But because of New Guinea’s long isolation, there are animals who live here that even Dr. Suess couldn’t invent. Birds who grow tall as a grown-up, with helmets of bone capping bright blue heads. Spine-covered, worm-eating mammals who lay eggs. And kangaroos who live in trees. Real kangaroos, with pouches, who climb into towering, moss-covered trees, and then jump out of them—and bounce away!
That’s why I came—for the tree kangaroos. Working on one of my books for young readers, I joined a team of researchers trying to do what others had told them was impossible. We wanted to capture and radio collar a particular kind of tree kangaroo—the Matchie’s tree kangaroo. It’s about the size of a big cat, with orange and yellow fur and a sweet pink nose. It spends most of its time 80 feet high in the trees. It eats orchids.
Nobody had done this before.
To get to the animals we had to hike along some of the toughest trails I’ve ever done. For three days, we struggled up steep slopes slippery with sucking mud. We were up so high—10,000 feet—we were literally in the clouds. The air was thin and hard to breathe. The second day of hiking, I quietly wondered whether I was having a nine-hour heart attack.
Leading our group was my friend, Dr. Lisa Dabek. And it’s her story I want to share with you today, because this scientist is as amazing as the Matchie’s tree kangaroos she studies.
Lisa always loved animals, but as a kid growing up, she couldn’t even have a dog. She had to give away her beloved cat, Twinkles, when she was 11. Why? Because she had terrible allergies, and asthma so bad she would wake in the night gasping. She couldn’t play sports. She loved nature but she lived in New York City. She wanted to be a wildlife biologist. So what could she do?
Despite her asthma, Lisa found ways to study animals as a child. She studied fish at the New York Aquarium. Fish didn’t give her asthma. Neither did the seals. At her house, on her asphalt roof of her parents’ apartment, she studied ants. Lisa let nothing get in her way.
Lisa met her first tree kangaroo at a zoo. She knew right away they were special. When she learned they were endangered, she vowed to anything she could to help them—and that meant she had to learn how they lived in the wild.
She started traveling to New Guinea to meet them. The mountain hikes were really hard! She carried an inhaler to help her breathe. She took special pills to open her airways. But she discovered that America’s polluted air made her asthma worse. The clean air of New Guinea made it better!
Breathing, though, was only one of her problems. The second was finding the tree kangaroos. She spent weeks looking for them. The tree kangaroos were hiding because people hunted and ate them. After five weeks in the field, Lisa saw only two tree kangaroos.
And then she didn’t see another for seven years.
But Lisa kept trying. Finally she found a group who hadn’t been hunted and weren’t afraid. But up in the trees they were still hard to see. She needed to outfit them with radio collars—but everyone told her it would be impossible. People said the telemetry you need to detect the signal from the radio collars wouldn’t work in the cloud forest. There were too many trees. They’d interfere with the signal. Folks told her not to even try.
I can see how people might get discouraged trying to do something like this. At the end of every day, our little group was exhausted, bruised from falling, and wet and muddy. Once we ran out of food and had to eat ferns. Other things went wrong. Equipment didn’t work in the rain. Our satellite phone failed. We worried about the stinging nettles, and also about the leeches—they sometimes get in your eye.
But all our discomfort vanished the minute we saw our first wild Matchie’s tree kangaroo. He was even more adorable than we imagined. His colors were crazy-brilliant. His nose was the cutest, softest pink. He looked like a big stuffed animal. And his fur was as soft as a cloud.
How do I know? Because I touched it—because we captured, radio collared and tracked FOUR tree kangaroos on that trip. And today, Lisa has data on many dozens of tree kangaroos, data that is helping to save this species and the cloud forest upon which these and so many other wonderful animals—and the wise, local people—depend.
So why am I telling you about New Guinea as we march together here half a world away in Boston?
Because this story reminds us the power of what science can do. Science can change the world.
And this story also shows us what science demands of us.
Science demands we share our data. But today, much data–like on climate change–is being repressed; for political gain, many of our leaders openly deny the facts–supported by billions of data points from thousands of scientists— showing beyond a doubt that our climate is changing due to man-made pollutants. That’s bad news for tree kangaroos—and for whales and reindeer and eagles and coral reefs.
Science can show us the solutions. But science also demands determination. And we all need to muster that determination right now—to not only gather data, but get it out there—to heal the world.
Doing science isn’t always easy. But we’re not going to quit. Like Lisa, we’re not going to back down. We’re going to keep collecting and sharing and discussing the data— we’re going to find the way to save the tree kangaroos and their forests–and our oceans, and our air, and the climate of our beautiful Earth.
Thank you.
Girls & Gills. When Loula Thomas turned 6 years old, she had a “Save the Sea” birthday party. “Loula is a shark, octopus and manatee lover,” says her mother Tassia, adding that Sy is “pretty much a hero in our family.” Loula is a member of The Gills Club, which connects girls and women marine scientists. As party favors, Loula gave out copies of Sy’s The Great White Shark Scientist and The Octopus Scientist. And her big sister, Penny, age 10, made a Pin The Dorsal Fin on the Shark game (seen behind Loula).
Sy is a guest blogger for the National Geographic where she asks readers to Consider the Octopus.
Octo in La La Land. The Soul of an Octopus is number 10 on the Los Angeles Times paperback nonfiction list.
This drawing was a present from the Fishes Staff at The Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center. The Senior Aquarist, the charming Evan Culbertson, introduced Sy at the evening All Henrico Reads program. (You old Muscle Car enthusiasts will note that the Octo is at the wheel of a GPO, which is strikingly like a 1969 Pontiac GTO.)
Coming in August: Rendezvous Mit Einem Oktopus. The German translation.
The Great White Shark Scientists has won the Riverby Award from the John Burroughs Association. Each year the John Burroughs Association honors authors, illustrators, and publishers of the best published nature writing.
The Riverby Award is given to “excellent natural history books for young readers that contain perceptive and artistic accounts of direct experiences in the world of nature.” This year seven books were honored.
March, 2017
The Japanese edition of The Soul of the Octopus has hit the Ginza, and who is that on the cover, Anime-style, but the author herself sporting flowy Farrah Fawcett hair (1970s, go look it up).
The Great White Shark Scientist is in fine company on the long list for the Green Earth Book Awards. Take a look at all these great books. The Green Earth Book Award is the nation’s first environmental stewardship book award for children and young adult book.
Ośmiornica, Tintenfisch, 문어 (Mun-eo), たこ (Tako), 章鱼 (Zhāngyú), Poulpe, Oсьминог (Os’minog). That’s how to say octopus in all the languages that The Soul of an Octopus has been translated into: Polish, German, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, French, and Russian.
February, 2017
Gumbo Limbo Nature Center is a joint venture of the City of Boca Raton, Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District, Florida Atlantic University (FAU), and Friends of Gumbo Limbo. Each year, more than 190,000 visit the 20-acre preserve on a barrier island and learn about sea turtles.
“You might think a book on cannibalism would be upsetting, but this one’s not. It’s refreshing,” writes Sy in her New York Times book review of Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History by Bill Schutt. Cannibalism, writes Sy, is a “jolly book” that is “full of surprising news.”
Amazon Adventure is a Junior Library Guild Selection. The Junior Library Guild is a book selection service serving many thousands of libraries, which rely on them to guide their book purchases for young readers. The Guild reviews books in advance of publication and select those they consider the best. Amazon Adventure will be published in July.
Octo Rising. That octopus book keeps swimming upward. The Soul of an Octopus is now at No. 4 on The New York Times Animals Bestseller list for January.
душа осьминога (Dusha os’minoga) – That’s Soul of an Octopus in Russian (or so says Google Translate). Sy’s Octo book will be published in Russia.
“Sy Montgomery’s books create an image of our collective ancestry,” says a review of three of Sy’s books posted by the Human Venture Community. “Why is this important? When we see humanity in all living beings we care about more than just our own species. No matter what other communities we belong to, we belong to two fundamental communities, life and humanity. Obligations to smaller communities, be it our social group or nation, can blind us to needs the greater community of life. If we connect our own process of becoming with humanity’s process of becoming, it will shift the way we prioritize and carry out our obligations. This is critical because the kind of learning and solutions we need for our civilizations greatest threats, need to be informed with all of life in mind.”
The review covers The Soul of an Octopus, Birdology, and Walking with The Great Apes. The Human Venture Community in Calgary, Alberta, is “committed to ongoing research and learning by exploring Human Learning Ecology,” which seeks to understand “the priorities, attitudes, beliefs and behaviors” that created the environmental crisis.
Octo Obama-rama. As a parting gift to President Obama, the famous Powell’s Books in Portland, Oregon, has sent him 10 books and it’s quite an interesting gathering, including a certain octo book. (They’ve also sent the incoming president a different set of books.)
Last December, Powell’s “invited customers to suggest books for President Obama and President-Elect Trump as they move into new roles. After hundreds of recommendations, the store chose 10 books each for the incoming and outgoing presidents ‘with a focus on informative, entertaining, and inspirational titles.’ The books are being sent in time for Inauguration Day,” says the store.
“In a note to both recipients, Powell’s CEO Miriam Sontz wrote: ‘All of us have great faith in the transformative nature of books — we are passionate about the impact reading can have on our personal lives and on the life of our country. Those of us in the book business are also optimists. We know that life will always present challenges and books will always be there to help us.’”
The 10 books for President Obama:
A Full Life by Jimmy Carter
The Undoing Project by Michael Lewis
The Sellout by Paul Beatty
The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison
Commonwealth by Ann Patchett
Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen
Citizen by Claudia Rankine
The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery
My Beer Year by Lucy Burningham
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
Goodbye Mr. President, we will miss you. And should you have any questions about octopuses, just pick up the Octo Hotline – you know, the phone with 8 buttons that changes colors and has tentacles – and call Sy.
My Sweet Octopus. That will be the Japanese title for The Soul of the Octopus to be published in February 2017. Or: 愛しのオクトパス――海の賢者が誘う意識と生命の神秘の世界. The translation of the subtitle is: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness and Life, Invited by the Intelligent Creature in the Sea. A very popular Japanese cartoonist, Chiisakobe O.C., has drawn the cover.
As 2016 ends, The Soul of an Octopus is on these lists of bestsellers at independent bookstores for the week ending December 25: #7 in New England, #9 in the Pacific Northwest, #10 in Southern California, #3 in Northern California, and #10 in the Mountains & Plains.
Forbes, the business magazine, has chosen The Soul of an Octopus as one of the 10 best popular science books for 2016.
An octopus walks into a movie…. Sy received this report from friend and editor Phil Pochoda, reporting from a “grand Los Angeles theater” where he was seeing Jim Jarmusch’s new movie, Paterson: “Towards the end of the movie, the hero, after a distressing event, is wandering through a bookshelf of primarily poetry books (not least, William Carlos Williams’ Paterson, which book seems to underlie much of the plot and characters in the movie). But third from the end of the shelf is …. Soul of an Octopus (though it’s hard to figure out why it would have been included). In any case, it felt good to see it there.” An octopus always dresses up a movie.
December, 2016
“Science is for Girls.” A Mighty Girl.com says it is “the world’s largest collection of books, toys and movies for smart, confident, and courageous girls.” They have chosen a mighty girl who Sy knows: Temple Grandin. Sy’s book about Temple is now on Mighty Girl’s list of books about female scientists.
Books of the Year:
The Soul of an Octopus is at #20 for December on The New York Times Science book bestseller list.
The Great White Shark Scientist has been named as one of Kirkus Reviews’ Best Books of 2016.
Delancyplace.com has chosen The Soul of an Octopus as one of its favorite books of 2016. Delancyplace .com delivers a daily book excerpt to its 290,000 email subscribers.
The Soul of an Octopus is one of this year’s top ten audio books on Libro.fm’s list of the bestselling audio books at indie bookstores. Sy read her book for that recording – but not, alas, at the wonderfully named Octopus Garden Sound Studio.
The National Science Teachers Association has named The Octopus Scientists one of the outstanding science books for students.
The Nonfiction Detectives – “Two intrepid librarians review the best nonfiction books for children” – have chosen The Great White Shark Scientist as one of the top books for 2016.
Go, pig, go! The Good Good Pig is now in its 16th printing. There are nearly 109,000 copies in print.
And in news of Octopodes, The Soul of an Octopus is on these lists of bestsellers at independent bookstores for the week ending December 4: #5 in New England, #7 in the Pacific Northwest, #5 in Southern California, #3 in Northern California, and #11 in the Mountains & Plains.
November, 2016
Octo-Potus. The West Wing Weekly is an episode-by-episode discussion of one of television’s most beloved shows. This podcast has gathered a big audience. It is co-hosted by one of its stars, Joshua Malina, along with Hrishikesh Hirway of Song Exploder. So naturally they’d get to discussing octopuses. In Episode 1.07, “The State Dinner,” the podcast hosts have this discussion:
Q: “Did you know that octopi is not the plural of octopus”
A: “I do know that because my wife just read a book called The Soul of An Octopus and now all she talks about is octopuses.”
They then discuss Inky the octopus’ escape from the aquarium tank: “Apparently they are incredibly smart. They just have very few venues in which to show their intelligence.”
“Yeah, if we lived underwater they would be overlords.”
“That’s right. They’d absolutely would be our overlords. One of the many reasons I refuse to live underwater.”
Club Book brings authors to the Twin City area. Sy visited in November. You can listen to the live event.
Sy’s octopuses are still swimming toward new friends. The Soul of an Octopus in #19 on The New York Times Science Bestseller list for November. And it’s on these lists of bestsellers at independent bookstores: #5 in New England, #4 in the Pacific Northwest, #4 in Northern California, and #10 in the Midwest.
October, 2016
The Micro Activist Connor Berryhill and his Dad entering Monterey Bay.
Sooo Coool!! Do octopuses have feelings? Do they love? That’s what the young “Micro Activist” Connor Berryhill wanted to know, so the 9-year-old naturalist made an amazing video.
The Micro Activist says: “I can’t think of a single super hero that has as many abilities as one of these buggers! How about Star Wars then…Nope nothing so bizarre as an octopus in any of those movies either. Harry Potter, Lord of the rings? Nope and Nope!
“What really confuses me is how so many kids go crazy about these made up things when any of use can just go right out there and actually meet the strangest and coolest living alien that anyone could possibly imagine… ever!
“So to better answer that question, I guess I’d have to say my Mom and Dad agreed to help me make this video if it would “Get me to stop talking about them every frigging moment of every day!” Thanks for the help Dad and Mom! and I really will try to stop talking about them, as much…but they’re just Soooo Coool!!”
Sy loves the Micro Activist’s octo video.
Temple Grandin has been chosen as the book middle school students will be reading next year for One Book, One Philadelphia.
As of October 26, The Soul of an Octopus is on six regional independent bestseller lists: #1 in the Pacific Northwest, #8 in New England, #12 in the Mountains & Plains, #9 in the Midwest, #8 in Southern California, and #3 in Northern California. And #16 on The New York Times Science Bestseller List.
One Pig’s Odyssey. Tony Morrison, Annie Proulx and Homer. That’s what the staff and board at the New Hampshire Humanities are reading. Each year they post a list. This year’s list includes Beloved, Barkskins, The Odyssey, and other titles including The Good Good Pig.
Rediscovered Books, Boise, Idaho
When the librarian is a scuba diver and wears a shark hat, you know it’s a fun school. Sy had a great time visiting the Bluebell Elementary School in Pennsylvania on October 18 with Lisa Ruff (in the shark hat) and Donna Branca (hatless) — and tons of really cool kids.
Sy received a warm welcome from the Shady Grove Elementary School in Pennsylvania on her October 17 visit.
At the University of Idaho even skeletons are reading The Soul of an Octopus.
Love & Happiness. Global Climate Change. Challenges of Race Relations. Octopuses have something to contribute! These are just 3 of the 30 classes at University of Idaho using The Soul of an Octopus for its Common Read Program. This October the entire freshman class at the University of Idaho is reading The Soul of an Octopus. On Sy’s whirlwind visit to campus she visited classes, met with fellow journalists, toured the entomology museum, hiked up Paradise Ridge to watch the sun rise over the Palouse Prairie, gave a public program…and even met a Giant Palouse earthworm (soon to star in its own Boston Globe column. Is the Hub ready for the G.P. E.?).
Another honor for The Soul of an Octopus: it has won the 2016 Orion Book Award. Part of the book first appeared in this fabulous magazine so Sy is particularly grateful to Orion’s editors.
The Soul of an Octopus has reached an auspicious number: its 8th printing.
As of October 2, The Soul of an Octopus is on four regional independent bestseller lists — #10 in New England, #13 in the Mountains & Plains, #6 in the Pacific Northwest, and #6 in Northern California.
What else would you expect to see in Octo-ber?
Everyone is reading The Soul of an Octopus. Each year the Howe Library in Hanover, New Hampshire, picks one book for its month-long community event called “Everyone is Reading.” This year it’s all about octopuses in Hanover. In addition to book discussions and talks about the ocean, you can “craft your own octopus” like the handsome yarn octopus seen above.
The Soul of an Octopus is presently swimming about on two New York Times Bestseller Lists for October: It’s at #17 on the Science list and #5 on the Animals list. And it continues on the regional independent bookstore lists: #3 in New England (Watch out Sox!), #1 in the Pacific Northwest, #9 in Northern California and #7 on the Mountains and Plains list.
September, 2016
For the week of September 4, The Soul of an Octopus is on these bestseller lists:
#4 – New England Independent Booksellers Association
#7 – Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association
#5 – New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association
#13 – Midwest Independent Booksellers Association
For summer’s end, The Soul of an Octopus is living large on the bestseller lists. The week of August 31 finds the book at #3 on New England Independent Booksellers Association list, #8 on Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association list, #3 on the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association list, #8 on Southern California Independent Booksellers Association list, and #6 on the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association list.
August, 2016
For the week of August 12, The Soul of an Octopus is on these regional bestseller lists:
#3 – New England Independent Booksellers Association
#9 – Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association
#3 – Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association
#10 – Southern California Independent Booksellers Association
#3 – Northern California Independent Booksellers Association
Beantown is Octo-Town. The Soul of an Octopus is number 3 on the Boston Globe’s Best Seller list for paperback nonfiction. Go Sox!
Sy’s octo book has swum into a new harbor. For the first time it appears on The New York Times Bestseller list of science books. It is at #20 for August. It’s also #5 on The New York Times Animals Bestseller list for August and it’s on these regional bestseller lists for the week of August 14: #6 –New England Independent Booksellers Association, #2 — Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association, #3 — Northern California Independent Booksellers Association, and #3 –New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association.
Sy’s friend Sandy Waters sent this Programme of Events of the RMS Queen Elizabeth for Sunday, June 23, 1957, which she bought at an antiques show. The day’s schedule began with optional swimming starting at 7:30 a.m., and included films (Sy would have most enjoyed “Catching Sea Creatures” provided they put them back), Melody Time, BBC News Broadcast, orchestral selections, Bingo — and the night’s gala “Fancy Head-Dress Parade” at 10:30 p.m. followed by dancing. Sounds fancy, but they do all this on Jet Blue, too.
For the week of August 7 The Soul of an Octopus is on these regional bestseller lists:
#4 – New England Independent Booksellers Association
#7 – Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association
#4 – Northern California Independent Booksellers Association
#6 – Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association
Kakapo Rescue inspires a genome project. Andrea Graves, a freelance science writer in New Zealand, recently wrote to Sy to tell her how her book on “the world’s strangest parrot” has “sparked off a wonderful series of events.” Jason Howard, a Duke University scientist, read Sy’s kakapo book to his daughter. Howard is sequencing avian genomes to “study the genetic basis of vocal learning.” After reading Sy’s book, he decided to sequence the Kakapo’s genome, and after much effort, got the samples he needed sent to the U.S.
“New Zealand science and conservation is hugely underfunded, so there is no way we could have afforded that in New Zealand,” writes Graves. “Jason’s decision to sequence the kakapo genome was crucial to it happening.” And it kicked off further research. “Now, via a crowd-funded project, New Zealanders have raised the money to sequence every single living adult kakapo, which is the first time ever that all the individuals in a species have been sequenced. Of course it helps that there aren’t many of them. There are likely to be huge conservation benefits to knowing the full sequence of all individuals, because they are fairly inbred as you can imagine.”
Andrea Graves concludes her note with further good news: There are now about twice as many kakapos on the island than there were when Sy wrote Kakapo Rescue in 2008.
July, 2016
The Soul of an Octopus has won the 2016 New England Book Award for Nonfiction. Sy thanks the members of the New England Independent Booksellers Association for choosing her book.
For the week of July 17 The Soul of an Octopus is on these regional bestseller lists:
#3 – New England Independent Booksellers Association
#6 – Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association
#12 – Southern California Independent Booksellers Alliance
#4 – Northern California Independent Booksellers Association
#8 – New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association
For the fourth month The Soul of an Octopus is on the New York Times Animals Best Seller list. It has moved up to #5 on the July list.
When Sy read at The Meetinghouse Readings in Canaan, NH, moderator Phil Pochoda introduced her. Phil is a retired publishing veteran (Simon & Schuster, Prentice Hall Press, Pantheon Books, University of Michigan Press, and the University Press of New England, where he edited two books written by Sy’s husband, Howard Mansfield.)
Phil welcomed Sy with this introduction:
Now well into the 21st century, long past the Age of Aquarius and the era of Carlos Castenada, shamans are in short supply. Those were the guys (since they are generally, but not always, male) who were able, sometimes with chemical assistance, to leave their human bodies, take up the form of their animal spirit guide, often a bird, but sometimes a fish or mammal, and do supernatural things for themselves and others. In particular, they were the mediators between the human and the animal worlds; they interpreted animals for humans and humans for animals.
We are lucky tonight to have, in New Hampshire resident Sy Montgomery, the
only shaman that I know of, and certainly the only one I know personally. Sy, as shamans do, roves the earth relentlessly: there have been sightings of her from the Caribbean to Sunderbans (a non-mythical place, which hovers somewhere between India and Bangladesh, and where non-mythical tigers regularly hunt non-mythical humans) with lengthy touch-downs also in Cambodia, the Amazon, Tahiti, New Guinea, Mongolia, and Manitoba. On her journeys she communes at length with birds, mammals, and sea creatures — surreal ones such as pink dolphins, ground-dwelling Kakapo parrots, golden moon bears, giant tarantulas, white sharks, tree kangaroos, snow leopards, and the giant Cassowary bird, and, as we will hear much about tonight, octopuses (not octopii), but she is equally tight with domestic animals such as pigs, chickens, and cockatoos.
Happily for us, she does return to New Hampshire after each shamanic adventure, where in book after book, article after article, she tenderly, beautifully, and passionately relates these transforming and transcendent experiences at so many human/animal interfaces. And so sitting safely in our homes, we and our children and grandchildren get at least a second-hand version of her miraculous shamanic border crossings, enabling us also, if we consent, to be transported out of our normal bodies into truly magical realms where we too may be deeply affected and our attitudes and actions towards animals permanently altered….
I’m so pleased to welcome back to the Meetinghouse, our neighbor, our friend, our shaman, Sy Montgomery.
For the week of July 10 The Soul of an Octopus is on these regional bestseller lists:
#5 – New England Independent Booksellers Association
#10 – Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association
#9 – Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association
#4 – Northern California Independent Booksellers Association
A view from Sy’s trip to the Serengeti where she followed wildebeest on their migration, which is the largest migration on earth. Here Dr. Dick Estes, who has been studying wildebeests for more than 55 years, surveys the herd.
Octopus Obsession: A Quilted Book Review Cathy Perlmutter was, she says, “born with a desperate need to make stuff.” She makes “mostly quilts” and shows her wonderful quilts on her blog Geflitequilt. Her most recent quilts are her first book review. “A few weeks ago, I picked up the new book, The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness, by Sy Montgomery, and could not put it down,” she writes. Above and below are Cathy’s two octo quilts. On her blog you can learn how to make these quilts. She concludes her quilted book review: “Read the Sy Montgomery book. You’ll love it!”
The Soul of an Octopus is a finalist for the New England Book Awards. Members of the New England Independent Booksellers Association will announce the winners later this summer.
Birdology has gone back to press for a new printing.
June, 2016
Octo book keeps on swimming. For the week of June 12 The Soul of an Octopus is on these regional bestseller lists:
#7 – New England Independent Booksellers Association
#6 – Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association
#7 – Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance
#4 – Northern California Independent Booksellers Association
The Great White Shark Scientist is published today, June 7. Above is an exclusive photo of the festivities at the publishing offices of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
The Soul of an Octopus is in its 6th printing for the paperback and the 12th printing for the hardcover.
“Don’t Panic: More Sharks Are Lurking Near Massachusetts’ Busiest Beaches.” Sy speaks up for sharks on WGBH’s Boston Public Radio, WBUR’s Radio Boston and NHPR’s Word of Mouth.
“The great white shark gets a bad rap…. According to writer and naturalist Sy Montgomery, it’s time to set the record straight. ‘If you look at the numbers, your chances of being hurt by a great white shark, they’re actually one in 37 million,’ Montgomery said in an interview with Boston Public Radio Thursday. “Whereas your chances of being injured by a toaster or a toilet or a room freshener are much higher than that!”
“Citing a 1984-1987 study showing 1,600 New Yorkers suffering from bites from other humans, Montgomery stressed that shark attacks against humans pale in comparison. ‘If you’re not afraid to go into your bathroom where the deadly toilet is lurking, or into the kitchen where, oh no, there might be a malfunctioning toaster,’ she said, ‘you shouldn’t be afraid to go into the waters of the Cape.’”
Traveling in style. The New York Times asks various stylish designers, chefs, singers and artists, what they pack. “When it comes to travel, they focus on the same things: the right bag, clothing that doesn’t wilt during a long flight, and the best tech and audio gear” – and the right book. Andrew Smith, a Detroit car guy — executive director, global, Cadillac design – told the Times, on June 2, “I typically also take a couple of novels” And for this trip: “I just bought The Soul of an Octopus.” Of course. It’s the Cadillac of octopus books.
Number One in the Pacific Northwest. As of May 26, The Soul of an Octopus continues to be a popular choice for readers:
#1 – Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association
#7 – New England Independent Booksellers Association
#4 – Northern California Independent Booksellers Association
#15 – New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association
#6 – Midwest Independent Booksellers Association
And it is at number 7 on the New York Times Animals Best Seller list for June.
Shark! Sy’s newest book for young readers, The Great White Shark Scientist, is being greeted with great reviews:
* A powerfully persuasive book … a convincing attitude changer that adults might find engrossing enough to read at the beach.
— The Huffington Post
* Prepare to be enveloped in saltwater air and dizzying blue water in this latest entry from veteran author Montgomery… Exceptionally written and highly recommended for those looking to give a timely summer boost to STEM collections.
– School Library Journal, starred review
* This appreciative introduction to a much-maligned species will thrill readers while it encourages them to see great white sharks in a new way.
—Kirkus, starred review
* Montgomery’s play-by-play narration and Ellenbogen’s dramatic photos give the scientific excursion a thrilling sense of immediacy that should leave readers feeling like they’re along for the voyage.
— Publishers Weekly
* One minute Montgomery recounts the technical details of shark tracking, the next minute relays the steps she needs to take to be safe on the ocean, and the next narrates an all-out shark chase, as researchers on a boat and in a plane work together in a successful shark identification bonanza. This approach fully immerses readers in the field research experience, as do the excellent photographs of people, sharks, and the environment.
— The Horn Book
* A fine addition to the ever-popular shark shelf.
— Booklist, Starred Review
* Thoughtfully presented with focus and accessibility [and] ample delight for thrill seekers.
— The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
May, 2016
Sy meets Sy the Octopus. The New England Aquarium has named one of its new Giant Pacific Octopus after a certain author and frequent visitor. “It’s a huge, huge honor,” says Sy (the author not the octopus).
As the Union Leader reported: Montgomery recently met Sy, who was captured in the wild just a few weeks before she came to New England Aquarium.
“She is perfect,” she said. “She is amazing.”
Montgomery offered the octopus some fish on a “grabber,” but the animal grabbed her arm instead. “She pulled and pulled me and almost pulled me in,” she said.
Then Sy the octopus “hosed” her with saltwater from her tank, a move that can either be hostile or playful, according to Montgomery’s book. “And after that, we just got down to petting each other,” she said. “She was sucking on me, letting me pet her head, and changing colors.”
Montgomery loved it.
She also loves the notion that folks will be singing Sy’s praises when they visit the aquarium’s new exhibit, “Tentacles.” “Thousands of people will be saying, ‘Sy is so beautiful,’ ‘Sy is so flexible,’ ‘Sy is so strong,” she said, laughing. “And so colorful!”
Go Pig Go! The paperback of The Good Good Pig is now in its 15th printing.
Arms Across America III. The Soul of an Octopus is on these Regional Independent Bestseller Lists for the week of May 15:
#5 – New England Independent Booksellers
#4 – Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association
#7 – Midwest Independent Booksellers Association
The paperback is now in its fifth printing.
Kochałam go jak wielką, grubą świnię. Bo był świnią. That may be Polish for: “I loved him like a big, fat pig. Because he was a pig.” At least that’s what Google Translate says is the headline on the extensive interview of Sy by Paulina Reiter, editor in chief of the leading Polish women’s magazine Wysokie Obcasy. From what we’ve read through the fog of Google Translate, it is a good, thoughtful interview. At right is the cover of the Polish edition of Sy’s Journey of the Pink Dolphins.
Arms Across America II. The new paperback edition of The Soul of an Octopus returns to six regional best seller lists for early May:
#5 — New England Independent Booksellers Association
#11 — Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance
#5 — Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association
#9 — Northern California Independent Booksellers Association
#7 — New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association
#10 — Midwest Independent Booksellers Association
Quest for the Tree Kangaroo is a grade 4-5 Exemplary Informational Text for the Common Core Standards.
Sy serves as affiliate faculty (nonfiction) for Southern New Hampshire University’s Master of Fine Arts in Fiction and Nonfiction program. Recently SNHU News interviewed Sy. Among the questions: What challenges you most as a writer and how do you overcome it? Her answer: “Too often I am intimidated by my own material. I think: I’m not good enough for this. I’ll screw it up! … But at these times, I don’t pretend to believe in myself. Instead, I believe in my teachers-the animals and people I met along the way. I trust in those teachers when I can’t trust in myself. I can’t believe in myself all the time (who can?) but I can always count on the animals, and they give me the strength and courage to go on through anything.”
April, 2016
Inky’s escape is the talk of the town. Inky may have left the building (the National Aquarium of New Zealand) but he’s still on our minds. The NewYorker.com called Sy to discuss octopus intelligence. Just what was Inky thinking? Hard to say, of course, but it doesn’t mean he wasn’t thinking. “It’s easy to project our own feelings onto animals—and that’s a mistake,” Sy told The New Yorker, “but it’s a worse mistake to think that we are up on some kind of pedestal and that animals can’t also think, feel, and know.”
The Soul of an Octopus has returned to the Best Seller list. The paperback debuted at number seven in March and in April it moved up a spot to number 6 on the New York Times Animals Best Seller list.
Arms Across America. The new paperback edition of The Soul of an Octopus is on several regional best seller lists:
#5 — New England Independent Booksellers Association
#4 — Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association
#14 — Northern California Booksellers Association
#15 — Midwest Independent Booksellers Association
The paperback is already in its third printing.
The Consequences of Consciousness. Leslie Thatcher has interviewed Sy for Truthout. They talked about how we treat animals. From the interview: “The idea of the tree of life is a beautiful metaphor, but it’s not ladder-like; it doesn’t start in the dirty ground and end with us humans up above on the top with the angels. I personally don’t want to be on the top. It’s lonely there. I’d rather be embedded with the family. There are definitely ways of understanding the reality of the world that we humans cannot access with our senses. Other creatures, including birds, can see colors we can’t — and we know these colors are real. There are truths out there that have been discovered by other species that we may never discover and understand.”
Inky Escapes! The Octopus flees his New Zealand aquarium and swims to
freedom. Sy was busy fielding questions from The Christian Science Monitor, Slate, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. USA Today, and Public Radio International. Here’s one story from PRI.org and USA Today:
A well-loved octopus named Inky escaped recently from the National Aquarium in New Zealand. Aquarium manager Rob Yarrall says the lid to the octopus’ tank was left slightly ajar after maintenance one night.
“He found this rather tempting, climbed out,” Yarrall says, “and he managed to make his way to one of the drain holes that go back to the ocean, and off he went, and didn’t even leave us a message, just off and went!”
The escape happened earlier this year, and hit the New Zealand national press Tuesday.
“Octopuses are fabulous escape artists, and it’s absolutely not surprising that he saw an opportunity to explore and he took it,” said Sy Montgomery, author of “The Soul of an Octopus.”
According to Montgomery, octopus escapes from aquariums are common. “They can squeeze through the tiniest spaces and easily, a 100-pound octopus can squeeze through an opening the size of an orange,” Montgomery said.
The drain pipe in the New Zealand aquarium was about 6 inches wide. Octopuses can typically squeeze through an opening as small as their mouths, or beaks, as they are the only hard part of their body.
“Their muscles are less like our biceps than our tongues,” Montgomery said, “so they can flow in a way that, even if our muscles were detached from our bones, our muscles could not do.”
A slime covering Inky’s skin would have prevented it from drying out as he oozed from his tank to the drain that led to his freedom. And the suckers on his tentacles, which octopuses can use to taste food, would have also helped propel him across the floor. “Each sucker can lift an enormous amount of weight,” Montgomery said.
According to Montgomery, a 3-inch-diameter sucker on a giant Pacific octopus can lift 30 pounds.
Montgomery says octopuses get out of aquariums so frequently not because of their Houdini-like escape skills, nor because they’re lonely — they’re solitary creatures — but because they are generally super curious.
“It doesn’t mean that Inky was unhappy where he was,” Montgomery said. “Astronauts don’t go into outer space because they don’t like Earth, they just want to see what else is out there.”
Aquarium manager Yarrall says Inky was brought to the aquarium from a nearby reef just a few years ago, so it’s likely he’ll be able to survive in the wild. And while he didn’t leave a note, there was a different telltale sign that he did, indeed, escape and wasn’t stolen: a trail of water from his tank to that drainpipe of freedom.
The teachers and the students at the James Mastricola Upper Elementary School in Merrimack, New Hampshire, went all out, decorating with themes from Sy’s books. Here are two doors, above and below.
The Great White Shark Scientist is a Junior Library Guild Selection. The Junior Library Guild is a book selection service serving many thousands of libraries, which rely on them to guide their book purchases for young readers. The Guild reviews books in advance of publication and select those they consider the best.
China Bound. The China Ocean Press will be publishing the Chinese edition of The Soul of an Octopus.
Just published: The Great White Shark Scientist. Sy and photographer Keith Ellenbogen visit their editor, the fabulous Kate O’Sullivan, at Houghton Mifflin, and Sy adds to the Octo Art she left last time.
March, 2016
A visitor. Sy spent a recent Saturday with Polish journalist Paulina Reiter, editor in chief of the leading Polish women’s magazine Wysokie Obcasy. The interview should run in the magazine in about a month – Sy will post it for her Polish readers! Here Paulina holds the Polish edition of The Good Good Pig and gets a kiss from Thurber.
The Soul of an Octopus has just been published in paperback, and it’s already in its second printing.
Another volunteer for Sy’s Octo Troopers. Sy is proud of her ten-year-old penpal, Maya (at right in the photo) and her cool school science project. She and her dad wrote Sy after she read The Soul of an Octopus, which inspired her octopus-themed research.
February, 2016
Sy’s publishers in Poland — Dobra, Swinka, Dobra (The Good, Good Pig) — have sent her a dozen birthday cards, including these two, above and below.
A meeting of the minds. The folks at Brainpickings have fallen for Sy’s “breathtaking inquiry” into the consciousness of octopuses. They advise: “do treat yourself to Sy Montgomery’s bewitching The Soul of an Octopus.”
Houghton Mifflin has just released this video, filmed at the New England Aquarium, about Sy’s forthcoming book, The Great White Shark Scientist to be published on June 7.
The Soul of an Octopus is now in its 11th printing.
Diesel, a California bookstore with four locations, has published an appreciation of The Soul of An Octopus in its online newsletter for February:
“Empathy for domesticated animals is natural to us, but empathy toward many other creatures can take effort. Mammals usually aren’t challenging, nor birds. Insects and reptiles are harder, but familiarity can make it easier. How about invertebrates of all kinds, though? And that most mysterious of invertebrates — the cephalopods, including the octopus?
“The Soul of an Octopus takes us into the stunningly alien world of octopus consciousness. From the mesmerizing chameleonic shapeshifting of their skin color, textures and shape changes, to their eight-armed dexterous coordination, to their playful intelligence, Montgomery introduces us to a life form that expands our imagination and strains our empathy into a bigger orbit. As she writes, quoting one of the biologists she works with: ‘Just about every animal,’ Scott says, ‘– not just mammals and birds– can learn, recognize individuals, and respond to empathy.'” And on working with these animals: ‘You learn to project empathy.’”
“It is a quantum leap in our sense of ourselves and of the place of consciousness in our planet’s fellow beings. As such, it is a bold step toward a greater understanding of the risks and values in the ecological relationships we maintain with the whole wide world.” — John E.
O is for Octopus. Helen MacDonald, author of the acclaimed H is for Hawk, was asked by The New York Times Book Review: “Who are your favorite writers on nature?”
MacDonald’s answer: “Too many to list! Off the top of my head, and restricting myself to modern writers, Barry Lopez, R. F. Langley, Tim Dee, Kathleen Jamie, Sy Montgomery, Julia Blackburn, Luke Jennings, and so many more.”
Big Read. Sy’s neighbors in Hancock, Peterborough, and Jaffrey are getting set for this year’s “Big Read,” when the communities will take on one book. This year readers will be wrapping their arms around The Soul of an Octopus. The libraries will buy books with a grant from the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation. On Earth Day, April 22, Sy will give a talk at the Peterborough Town House, 7 p.m.
A pig, a bear and a fruit fly walk into a bar…what happens next? Listen to Sy’s interview on WGBH with hosts Jim Braude and Margery Eagan at the 1:45 mark.
The American Library Association has chosen The Soul of an Octopus as one of its 25 Notable Books for 2016.
The Octopus Scientists has won the 2016 AAAS/Subaru SB&F (Science Book & Film) prize for excellence in science books. For the last 10 years, The American Academy of Arts and Sciences, backed by Subaru, has honored outstanding science writing. The Octopus Scientists is their pick for the middle grades.
A Choice Honor. The Octopus Scientists is a CBCC Choices for 2016. CCBC Choices is the annual best-of-the-year list of the Cooperative Children’s Book Center. Choices considered 3400 books. They selected only 259 books or about 8% for the Choices list.
The Nerdy Book Club is led by the kind of people Sy loves to meet: dedicated teachers and readers. It’s run by four teachers in Texas, Illinois, and Pennsylvania. After visiting their website, you’ll want to bookmark it to see what they love to read. Each year they award “The Nerdies” to the best books and for 2015 they have chosen The Octopus Scientists.
A big thank you to the students of the Cambridge Friends School for their lovely notes after Sy’s visit. The covers of a few of these notes are above and below.
The Soul of an Octopus is now in its tenth printing.
December, 2015
That pig is still on the loose! Christopher Hogwood is spreading holiday cheer in Poland. Monika Szymon, owner of a gingerbread bakery, took time out at a hectic time to write to Sy: “Now we are busy with Christmas orders and have little time for reading. But your history of Christopher was with us during this busy time: I’ve been reading aloud from it. We fall in love with that energetic, hedonistic person. Probably that’s why Chris appeared spontaneously in our gingerbread works: as a piece of dough left after cutting out stars and trees. Thank you for your books and works!”
The Octopus Scientists has been named to Booklist’s Editors’ Choice 2015 list.
The Soul of an Octopus is on The Daily Beast’s list of The Best Nonfiction of 2015: “Montgomery’s illuminating new book [is] funny, sad, and endlessly fascinating.”
“For those who are ready to welcome our octopus overlords,” Jillian Capewell, Entertainment News Editor for The Huffington Post recommends Sy’s octopus book as one of the “20 Notable Non-Fiction Books You Might’ve Missed This Year.”
The Nonfiction Detectives – “two intrepid librarians” who “review the best nonfiction books for children” – have chosen The Octopus Scientists as one of the best of the year. “Montgomery builds excitement, suspense, and a sense of adventure through the first person narrative, dialogue and vivid descriptions of what it’s like to spend days diving and searching for the elusive octopus…The Octopus Scientists is a recommended purchase for school and public library. It would make an excellent mentor text for a writing class working on first person narratives, and it would be an exciting read aloud in a middle school science class.”
Sy shared octopus images and stories with the students and staff at Cambridge Friends School near Boston on December 9. How does an octopus squirt ink? Where is an octopus’ mouth? How can you tell a male octopus from a female octopus? They had wonderful questions!
And she enjoyed her visit to the Marston Elementary School in Hampton, NH on December 14.
November, 2015
Shelf Awareness has picked a certain book about octopus as one of the best of the year, as has Deborah Blum on the National Public Radio show Science Friday.
The Soul of an Octopus is now in its 9th printing.
AudioFile Magazine has chosen The Soul of an Octopus as read by Sy as one the best audiobooks of 2015.
“Success has many authors” as the saying goes. Thurber shares the credit! Sy is grateful, and glad to be back home.
Scenes from Sy’s amazing week in New York at the National Book Awards. Her editor Leslie Meredith sitting next to her at the awards ceremony and dinner.
The cake Atria/Simon & Schuster created to celebrate the book. And here’s a link to Sy’s reading – four minutes for each finalist.
The best of the year. The Soul of an Octopus has a tentacle or two on many year-end lists of the best books:
* Library Journal picks it as the Best Sci-Tech book of 2015.
* Amazon says it’s one of the two best science books, and also “Sports/Outdoors” books. (Octo sports? O Amazon thy ways are mysterious, but thank you.)
* And both The Soul of an Octopus and The Octopus Scientists (grades 4 to 8) are finalists for the book awards from the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Vote: The Soul of an Octopus is a semifinalist for a Good Reads Choice Award. Readers choose the winners, so please vote.
The National Science Teachers’ Association has chosen The Octopus Scientist as an Outstanding Science Trade Book for K-12.
“I have always felt deeply connected to different animals because, as a child, I didn’t feel there was a separation to start with. Most of us as children don’t feel that separation. Most of us as children, our dreams are filled with animals, and we can still feel the connection to our own past as hunter-gatherers who had to pay attention to the natural world and feel part of it. So that’s who we are, and to embrace the rest of animate creation is our own destiny as humans. And it is extremely dangerous for us to lose that.”
That’s part of the wonderful conversation Sy had with the writer Laura C. Rohrer who interviewed Sy for the National Book Foundation.
October, 2015
The Soul of an Octopus is a finalist for the 2015 National Book Awards. The other four nonfiction books that made the cut from the “Longlist” are: Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me; Sally Mann, Hold Still; Carla Power, If the Oceans Were Ink: An Unlikely Friendship and a Journey to the Heart of the Quran; and Tracy K. Smith, Ordinary Light.
The winner will be announced November 18.
“Man, octopus – there is none so close to us” – or so says Google Translate.
Sixth and Seventh Printings. Simon & Schuster has ordered two more printings of The Soul of an Octopus.
Last week Sy had the great pleasure of returning to Utah to visit a great group who are dedicated to putting children together with books that they’ll love. Sy spoke at the annual conference of the Utah Chapter of the International Reading Association. She was introduced by Lauren Aimonette Liang. Professor Liang teaches in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Utah and she has the kind of home in which reading flourishes. Professor Liang’s introduction:
In my life, Sy Montgomery is a superstar.
Sy has written over 20 books for children and adults. Her books have won several awards and her newest title, The Soul of an Octopus, is on the nonfiction long list for the National Book Award. Her children’s books have introduced thousands of children around the world — including my own— animals they may never have heard of otherwise, and helped them to love and care for these often endangered animals.
In my home it started with the kakapo. In first grade my son was asked to read a nonfiction book on an animal and write a report. Looking through the bookshelves in my office, he found and fell in love with Sy’s Kakapo Rescue book. This was the start of an avid interest in our house not just in the kakapo but in tree kangaroos, pink dolphins and more animals highlighted in Sy’s books. When my son’s class pet “Fang” suddenly became our family pet this past summer, we were prepared for the new “Fang Liang “ thanks to Sy’s book The Tarantula Scientist. Her writing is captivating, as she combines facts about her animal subjects with stories of her research and the adventures of the scientists she joins.
In my undergraduate and graduate children’s literature classes, many students read Sy’s works as an example of outstanding children’s nonfiction. A year ago while a small group was examining which sections of a page from The Snake Scientist were pure expository text and which were more narrative nonfiction, one student looked up at me and said, “I know this is narrative nonfiction here, but I think Sy makes it come alive so much that it’s almost persuasive text—I am suddenly loving snakes!”
In an interview Sy said “We are on the cusp of either destroying this sweet, green Earth—or revolutionizing the way we understand the rest of animal creation. It’s an important time to be writing about the connections we share with our fellow creatures.” Sy’s books inspire exploration of these special connections. Her books also show the extreme measures she undertakes in her research to better understand the animals she meets.
My children think Sy is amazing because she knows so much about animals they have come to love.
My students think Sy is amazing because she writes such eloquent nonfiction text for children.
I think Sy is an amazing superstar because she writes books that not only teach students about animals and the work of biologists and research scientists, but that also convince children — and adults— that the absolute coolest job in the world is being a nonfiction children’s author.
September, 2015
Great News: The Soul of an Octopus has been “longlisted” for the National Book Awards. There are 10 fine nonfiction books on the list.
Fifth Printing. Simon & Schuster has ordered a fifth printing of The Soul of an Octopus.
The Noodle believes that “all children can be avid readers — even those who would rather peer through a microscope than pore over a book.” See their list of books recommended by librarians for students in different grades. Sy is happy to see that the Noodle is recommending her book about Temple Grandin.
Sy loves getting mail from readers.
Dava Sobel, author of Longitude, is one of Sy’s favorite writers. Sy is happy to hear that Sobel will be discussing The Soul of an Octopus in the classes she’s teaching at Smith College. Sobel writes: “I read a few books myself this summer, including Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver, The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery, and H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald. All three will come up in conversation in this year’s classes, as they offer, respectively, a fictionalized account of organisms affected by climate change, a scientist’s appreciation of a misunderstood mollusk, and the bonds between humans and other animals.”
August, 2015
The Westmoreland Town Library
in New Hampshire welcomes
Sy with some Octopus Cupcakes.
Octo-occupation. For the third month in a row The Soul of an Octopus is on the New York Times Animals Bestseller List. It’s at number ten.
Indie Bestseller. The Soul of an Octopus has returned to the bestseller list of the New England Independent Booksellers Association (NEIBA). It’s at number 13 on the hardcover nonfiction list for the week ending August 9.
“Eight Armed Mischief: The Deeply Intelligent Octopus.” Sy’s interview on the Leonard Lopate Show (WNYC) inspired the staff there to come up with “The Five Top Octopus Occupations.”
Kiwi Octopus. Sy talks to Radio New Zealand.
July, 2015
Forget Shark Week — what we really need is Octopus Week, the New York Post declares after reading The Soul of an Octopus. And they back up their case with videos of octopuses performing their usual amazing feats.
The Soul of an Octopus moves closer to number 8. It’s at number nine on July’s New York Times bestsellers list of books about animals.
Fourth Printing. Simon & Schuster has gone back for a fourth printing of The Soul of an Octopus.
In great company, along with Jacques Cousteau and Rachael Carson: Off the Shelf picks 11 Books to Explore the Mysteries of the Ocean Deep.
Bond – James Bond – and Sy. Alton Brown is a chef, host of the popular show Good Eats on the Food Network, and is busy touring the country with a live show. The website Lifehacker asked Brown all sorts of questions about his kitchen, the tools and apps he uses and:
Q: What are you currently reading?
A: Gravity’s Rainbow, James Bond novels, and Sy Montgomery’s The Soul of an Octopus.
Octopuses Down Under, across the Atlantic and in the Hub (Boston). Sy talks to ABC Late Night Live in Australia, to Sean Moncrieff, Ireland’s favorite radio show host, and to Modern Notion Daily. Sy also appears on WGBH’s television show, Greater Boston, at the 16:29 mark.
Booksellers love The Soul of The Octopus. That’s what three of Sy’s favorite independent booksellers told the New Hampshire weekly, The Hippo:
* Michael Herrman, owner of Gibson’s Bookstore: “A fascinating journey into the minds of creatures that are separated from us by half a billion years of evolution.”
* Holly and Willard Williams, owners of The Toadstool Bookshop: “Successfully foists her enthusiasm on all readers, even those who might not have initially shared her love.”
The latest Octo radio. While in Vancouver Sy spoke with CBC Radio One on The Early Edition about what she’s learned from octopuses: “They’ve taught me that there’s many different ways of knowing and thinking and feeling, all vivid and all important…. These animals’ brains are so different from ours, their lives are so different from ours, their bodies are so different from ours… they taste with all of their skin, including their eyelids …. They can know you and know you are different from this other person … and that to me expands the moral universe quite a bit.”
The story behind the book. In Sunday’s Boston Globe, Sy talks about why she wanted to write about Octopuses: “This strong sense of personality attracted her to the animals, said Montgomery, who co-writes a Globe column, Tamed and Untamed. ‘We split from our common ancestor with the octopus half a billion years ago. And yet — you can make friends with an octopus.’
“Is friendship the right word, really, or is that anthropomorphizing a set of animal reactions and responses? Montgomery rejects the question. ‘Anthropomorphism is such an interesting concept,’ she said. ‘It means projecting human thoughts and emotions onto an animal. Which implies that thoughts and feelings belong to humans alone. Of course, if you believe in evolution, or if you believe in the Bible, that’s not so. Both evolution and the Bible tell us that we’re part of a family.’ Read the rest of the short interview.
Underwater photographer Keith Ellenbogen has signed copies of our book for kids, The Octopus Scientists, at New England Aquarium’s great gift shop. If you’re in the area, stop by and pick up a copy — and don’t forget to say hello to Elvira the octopus (who’s on eggs).
June, 2015
New York Times Best Seller. The Soul of an Octopus is on the Times’ Animals Best Sellers list for June at number 10 — but surely number 8 would make more sense.
The New York Times Sunday Book Review writes about the Octopus book surfacing on the Best Seller list — Hugs and Kisses: Among the usual paeans to dogs and other cuddly creatures on the monthly animals best-seller list, there’s also a more surprising tribute: “The Soul of an Octopus,” by the naturalist Sy Montgomery, makes its debut at No. 10. In a recent interview with CBC News, Montgomery conceded octopuses don’t have the best reputation. “It has something to do with being an invertebrate, and being covered with slime . . . and those suckers,” she said. “But the suckers are great. It’s kind of like being hugged and kissed at the same time. You go home and you’ve got hickeys on your arms to explain to your husband. But you’ve been having this meaningful interaction with an octopus.”
Report from the road. Sy is on her book tour. She reports: “Souled” out! My talk on octopuses at Denver Museum of Nature and Science was SRO with many smart questions (including an excellent one from 4-year-old Henry about octopus ink)–what a great night!! Now about to cuddle with Cheryl Miller’s corgi Louie and Aussie Roddy before bed—early to rise to get to Columbus Ohio tomorrow. (Seattle was also SRO.)
And from Ohio, Sy reports: We sold out of books in Columbus! Great fun to be with dear friend Becky Rose and other Columbus Zoo staff and volunteers, as well as reunite with beloved host of the popular “All Sides” radio show at WOSU radio, Ann Fisher. Listen to the interview here.
Mail from an 11-year-old student who wants to be a Marine Biologist. She’ll attend Boston Latin in the fall. She heard Sy on the radio and wrote to thank her: “The way you spoke today inspired me to learn about octopi and the ocean, and I wanted to thank you.”
Bestseller. The Soul of an Octopus is on the bestseller list of the New England Independent Booksellers Association (NEIBA). It’s at number 13 on the hardcover nonfiction list. Now onward, we hope, to the number 8 spot. Where else for an octopus book?
Third Printing. Simon & Schuster has gone back for a third printing of The Soul of an Octopus.
More Octo Radio. Listen to Sy’s interview on NHPR’s Word of Mouth.
Look for a review in The Week, June 12, 2015.
Beach Blanket Cephalopod. The Soul of an Octopus makes the list on NHPR’s Annual Summer Books Show.
This little piggy went to Gibson’s Bookstore to hear Sy read from her new book. Tazzy is her name and she lives on Miles Smith Farm. “Tazzy is a fan of Sy’s book, The Good Good Pig,” says her human chaperone.
What do Jackson Pollock, fruit flies and the Levy Distribution have to do with octopuses and human behavior? That’s what National Geographic asked Sy. Read the interview here.
Happiness. “What really makes humans happy, I believe, is our connection with the real, living, breathing, sweet green world, a world full of so many different kinds of creatures, a world endlessly mysterious and exciting and beautiful,” Sy says in a short interview with Thrive Wire.
“If you don’t love all creatures great and small after reading Sy Montgomery you have no heart.” – Kathye Fetsko Petrie, author, editor, and we’re proud to say, a friend from long ago.
Christopher Hogwood gets a great reception in Poland! Here’s just one of the enthusiastic reviews of Dobra Swinka, Dobra:
The Alien at Your Doorstep. Just off Seattle’s coastline lives something more alien, fascinating and emotionally appealing than any science-fiction space character. It has unearthly superpowers: It can taste with its skin; it can resist a pull 1,000 times its own weight; it can change color and shape, squirt ink and inject venom; it can grow to more than 100 pounds, yet pour its baggy, boneless body through an opening the size of an orange. Read Sy’s story in The Seattle Times.
Handle with Care. The June 2015 Reader’s Digest has an excerpt from Sy’s Birdology about how Brenda Sherburn raises baby hummingbirds. You can see Chris Buzelli’s art here.
May, 2015
Just published — May 15. In bookstores now: The Soul of an Octopus –A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness. Atria Books | 272 pages | ISBN 9781451697711
The Soul of an Octopus is one of GoodReads Best Books of the Month for May 2015. “What an incredible story. It shows how interconnected all living things are on our planet and creates a reverence for all who reside here. Remarkable.”
Octopus on the radio. Our world is really the remnants of a previous one, says one Hawaiian story, and the only survivor of that previous world is the octopus. How did it survive? It slipped between a crack in the two worlds. Listen to Sy talk about The Soul of an Ocotpus on PRI’s The World. And on WGBH’s talk show Boston Public Radio.
Two legs good, eight legs best: five reasons to love octopuses. As if you needed any reasons for Octo Love. Read this article in The Guardian.
April, 2015
Dobra, Swinka, Dobra. Christopher Hogwood has arrived in Poland, far from his New Hampshire pig pen. Chris’ Polish publisher is beaming with pride:
Międzynarodowy bestseller!
Kiedy Sy przygarnęła cherlawego prosiaka, nie miała pojęcia, że to stworzenie – początkowo nie większe od kota – nie tylko przeżyje i urośnie do ogromnych rozmiarów, ale też podaruje jej to, czego zawsze szukała: rodzinę, dom i przyjaciół.
Christopher Hogwood, bo tak go nazwała, stał się ulubieńcem okolicy. Sąsiedzi przyprowadzali go, gdy uciekał, córki sąsiadki urządzały mu ciepłe kąpiele, a powiększające się grono znajomych zwoziło przepyszne resztki ze swoich stołów.
Inteligencja i sława czarno-białej świni rosły wraz z jej wagą – Chris trafił nawet do radia i telewizji.
Sign at the Los Angeles Zoo — western lowland gorilla exhibit:
Chasing Cheetahs: The Race to Save Africa’s Fastest Cats has made the 2015 Green Earth Book Award Short List. The winning books will be chosen from this short list and will be announced on Earth Day, April 22, 2015.
“The Nature Generation created the Green Earth Book Award to promote books that inspire children to grow a deeper appreciation, respect, and responsibility for their natural environment. This is an annual award for books that best raise awareness of the beauty of our natural world and the responsibility we have to protect it.”
Kiss the Cheetah! Chasing Cheetahs is one of Kiss the Book’s Top 50 Books for Secondary School readers for 2015. The list will be presented at the Utah school librarians’ annual conference. And the cheetahs in great company: Check out the entire list of wonderful books for young readers: http://kissthebook.org/top50/
February, 2015
That pig is on the move again. Christopher Hogwood has returned to the New York Times bestseller list. On February 22, look for The Good, Good Pig on the E-Book Nonfiction list at number 12, and on the Combined Nonfiction list at number 19.
On the radio. Sy answers a myriad of questions about animals – cats that comfort the dying, rent-a-pets, dogs left at home, a pit of 18,000 snakes, her Border Collie Sally, and her flock of hens. Listen to Boston Public Radio on WGBH at the 2:00:20 mark.
And more radio. On Something Wild, Sy recalls how she first heard the “call of the wild” as a toddler, (before age 2) at the Frankfurt Zoo in Germany. “Somehow I got into the exhibit with the hippo,” she recalled. “Hippos bite you in half; they’re very dangerous animals.” Small as she was, especially next to the hippo, she didn’t get nervous. More importantly she didn’t start running around as little children can do when they panic. And she has a simple explanation for why she didn’t. “I’ve always just felt much more at home with animals than people.” Listen to this short NHPR show here.
Chasing Cheetahs is an ALA Notable Book for 2015. Each year the American Library Association selects the “best of the best in children’s books” and we are happy to say that this year that includes Chasing Cheetahs.
The Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Children’s Nonfiction has chosen Chasing Cheetahs as a Recommended Book for 2015. “The NCTE Orbis Pictus Award was established in 1989 for promoting and recognizing excellence in the writing of nonfiction for children. The name Orbis Pictus, commemorates the work of Johannes Amos Comenius, Orbis Pictus—The World in Pictures (1657), considered to be the first book actually planned for children.”
Sy is writing a new weekly column about animals for The Boston Globe. She shares the writing of Tamed/Untamed with her good friend Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, author of The Hidden Life of Dogs. They will alternate every week. On the last week of the month, they’ll try to answer your questions about animals. Contact them: syandlizletters@gmail.com Sy’s first column — Psychological effects of pets are profound – can be read here.
Sy started off the year with a Skype visit with eleven 4th grade classes at PS 14 in Queens. The session was organized by teacher and journalist Markos Papadatos–who wore his tarantula tie in honor of the occasion.
A highlight of our virtual visit was a letter written by one student to the French Government pleading for protection for the tarantulas, who are frequently killed to be encased in Lucite as souvenirs. Tarantulas are important because their venom can yield important drugs. But also, noted the student, if these beautiful spiders are killed, “the rain forest will feel lonely and it will not be exciting.” Here is the letter:
1/7/2015
Dear French Government,
Please stop killing tarantulas. You need to protect them from being killed. People should not kill them for souvenirs because they are so important to us.
One reason why you should protect tarantulas is they save our lives because their venom stop us from having heart attacks. This can help lots of people.
Also they make an important part of the rainforest. If they are killed the rain forest will feel lonely and it will not be exciting.
Another reason why you should not kill tarantulas is because people like to study them. If people study them they will continue to make amazing discoveries.
After reading the Tarantula Scientist, this is why you need to make laws to protect the tarantulas from being killed.
Sincerely,
Dayabara, Class 4-314
An international honor for Temple Grandin: How the Girl Who Loved Cows Embraced Autism and Changed the World. Temple Grandin has been selected for the IBBY Documentation Centre for Young People with Disabilities. The International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) is a non-profit organization based in Switzerland which represents a network of people from all over the world who are dedicated to bringing books and children together.
Chasing Cheetahs is a finalist for a 2014 Cybils Awards. The Children’s and Young Adult Bloggers’ Awards “aims to recognize the children’s and young adult authors and illustrators whose books combine the highest literary merit and popular appeal.” The nomination for Cheetahs says: “This is a perfect blend of inspiration and science, encouraging kids to dig deeper and think about a popular topic. A great book for strong middle-grade readers to enjoy on their own or to read together as a family or class.”
December, 2014
Talking Sharks. Sy was on Here & Now to talk about sharks and our fear of them. About her first dive she says: “Although my heart was pounding when I went down in the cage — when I actually saw the sharks, instead of feeling at all frightened I was engulfed with this sense of tranquility.” Listen to the short interview here.
Sy has more to say about sharks and our fears in a story she wrote for the online journal Aeon: “Danger girl —What I learned about fear, sex, desire and dread from the peculiar pleasures of diving with great white sharks.” Read it here.
Dobra świnka, dobra’! That’s Good Good Pig in Polish. In 2015 The Good Good Pig will be published in Poland. Christopher Hogwood has already ventured overseas in Dutch, British, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Portuguese editions. He always enjoyed (unauthorized) tours around the neighborhood. Now that pig is an international traveler.
Cheetahs take Chicago. The Chicago Public Library has chosen Chasing Cheetahs as one of the Best Informational Books for Older Readers of 2014.
Chasing Cheetahs has been chosen by Smart Books for Smart Kids as one of the Best Science Books for Children in 2014:
“Chasing Cheetahs educates readers in a most fascinating way about the importance of the survival of cheetahs as a species; as predators they play an important role in the circle of life, controlling populations of antelope…. The photographs in Chasing Cheetahs by Nic Bishop are outstanding, offering us a glorious glimpse into Namibia’s cheetah habitat; it’s the next best thing to being there.
“The lessons to be learned about the way cheetahs live and are being threatened are thought provoking. If this one species of wild animals is at risk at the hand of humans then we must ask what other animals do we adversely affect? What are the consequences? How can we change this? Reading about Dr. Laurie Marker and her journey to save cheetahs is priceless. What children will take away from this book is that one person with great passion (and a good education) can accomplish goals that – while at first may seem impossible – are not only attainable, but can make a huge and lasting difference in this world.” You can read more here.
Sy is immensely enjoying the big piles of letters and drawings from students at West Clay Elementary in Carmel, Indiana, with whom she recently visited, and Metawee Community School in West Pawlett, Vt., with whom she scyped last week. In our scype session, we focused on coral reef animals. This drawing, by the talented Harlow Rosemary Quail, depicts the walking or flamboyant cuttlefish (Metasepia pfefferi), an Indo-Pacific relative of the octopus, displaying a threatening pattern of bright colors.
November, 2014
Chasing Cheetahs has been selected as one of the Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K-12 for 2015. This list is a cooperative project of the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) and the Children’s Book Council.
Five wonderful elementary schools in Carmel Indiana rolled out the red carpet for Sy last week, where she shared stories and images of her work, signed and personalized hundreds of books, and answered the kids’ thoughtful and perceptive questions. Thanks to the fantastic school librarians, the kids were extremely well-prepared; they had been reading Sy’s work, watching videos, learning about animals and creating artwork for weeks in advance of her arrival.
Thank you to Cherry Tree, College Wood, Mohawk Trails, Smoky Row and West Clay Elementary Schools!
Here’s some photos and artwork from that unforgettable visit:
Sy’s new friend, Lauren, started a wildlife journal like Sy’s after having lunch with her!
September, 2014
Sy’s forthcoming book for young people, The Octopus Scientists, photographed by Keith Ellenbogen, has been chosen as a Junior Library Guild Selection. JLG is a collection development and review service that schools and libraries have relied upon for 85 years, suggesting upcoming books with particular promise. The Octopus Scientists is the true story of an expedition to study wild Pacific Day Octopuses in french Polynesia with a team of octopus experts–including an octopus psychologist! The book will be published in May by Houghton Mifflin.
The end of September finds Sy in a cage underwater with Great White Sharks. This summer she’s worked off Cape Cod from a boat with shark researcher Greg Skomal and his team. But to get really up close and personal, she’s getting in the water with these beautiful animals, traveling with photographer Keith Ellenbogen to the chrystal-clear waters off Guadeloupe, Mexico. She hopes to get views like these!
The Regret of Rats, the Grief of Wolves: Animals Do Have Emotions, But What Should We Call Them? Sy talks with her friend and fellow “animalist” Vicki Croke for The Wild Life which runs on WBUR’s Here and Now. Read the interview here. Or listen here.
Look what’s being featured in the gift shop at the Houston Zoo! 
August, 2014
Sy’s short essay, “Tarantula Heaven,” is part of the fifth installment in the Guys Read Library of Great Reading. The True Stories anthology features “ten stories that are 100% amazing, 100% adventurous, 100% unbelievable—and 100% true. A star-studded group of award-winning nonfiction authors and journalists provides something for every reader, all aligned with the Common Core State Standards.”
July, 2014
With her friends, Massachusetts shark biologist Greg Skomal and photographer Keith Ellenbogen, Sy will be on the Cape in early July chasing great white sharks for her next book, The Great White Shark Scientist. Sy’s planning to stay on the boat this time, but come September, she’ll be diving with them — in a cage — off Guadeloupe. (Photo from clker.com, public domain clip art.)
June, 2014
Congratulations to Pati Medici. For her long-running tapir conservation project, Pati has been chosen as one of 20 new TED Fellows for 2014. The Tapir Scientist is all about Pati’s work in Brazil protect the threatened lowland tapir – the largest terrestrial mammal in South America.
The Tapir Scientist has been selected by Bank Street College of Education as one of The Best Children’s Books of the Year, 2014.
Kakapo Rescue: Saving the World’s Strangest Parrot, has been nominated for a 2015 Grand Canyon Reader Award.
The Grand Canyon Reader Award is chosen by children. Approximately 45,000 Arizona students vote each year. Kakpo Rescue, along with nine other nonfiction books, will be read by teachers, librarians, and students all over Arizona and voted upon by April 1, 2015.
April, 2014
As “The Animalist”, former Boston Globe reporter Vicki Croke brings us news about the natural world. Vicki and Sy are kindred spirits, so it was a great pleasure to have Vicki visit.
Vicki asked Sy: Do you feel as though you’ve learned, not just about an animal’s natural history, but lessons about life for yourself?
Sy answered: How to be a good creature. How do you be compassionate?… I think that animals teach compassion better than anything else and compassion doesn’t necessarily just mean a little mouse with a sore foot and you try to fix it. It means getting yourself inside the mind and heart of someone else. Seeing someone’s soul, looking for their truth. Animals teach you all of that and that’s how you get compassion and heart.” Watch a video of the interview here.
March, 2014
Chasing Cheetahs: The Race to Save Africa’s Fastest Cats has been chosen as A Junior Library Guild Selection for Spring 2014. The Junior Library Guild’s honor is unique because it is awarded in advance of the publication date. Chasing Cheetahs will be published this April.
Booklist has chosen The Tapir Scientist as one of its Top Ten Books on Sustainability for Youth: 2014.
How Thinking in Pictures Brought Temple Grandin Success. The fourth, fifth and sixth graders who are part of Wolcott Elementary School’s Dorothy Canfield Fisher Book Club have been reading Temple Grandin: How the Girl Who Loved Cows Embraced Autism and Changed the World. Many of the students wanted to know more about Temple Grandin’s work with animals. Others were interested in how Sy researched and wrote her books.
Sy answered their questions on Vermont Public Radio. You can listen or read a transcript of the short interview here.
Laurie Marker. She has dedicated her life to saving cheetahs.
Cheetahs are coming. Sy’s newest book in the acclaimed Scientists in the Field series will be published this April. Chasing Cheetahs: The Race to Save Africa’s Fastest Cat features Nic Bishop’s award-winning photography. Read about the making of Chasing Cheetahs here.
Temple Grandin has won a 2014 Norman A. Sugarman Children’s Biography Award Honor. The Sugarman Award is given biennially by the Cleveland Public Library to honor excellence in the field of biography for children. Endowed by the Joan G. Sugarman family, the Norman A. Sugarman Children’s Biography Award was established in 1998.
December, 2013
Portrait of a writer. Age two:
Q. What came first, the fascination with and love of nature or the desire to write? When did the two intersect?
A. I loved animals and plants long before I could read or write. I am told that before I was two, I toddled inside the hippo pen at the Frankfurt zoo—and the massive hippos were apparently quite welcoming and did not (obviously) bite me in half, as they are prone to do to humans in similar circumstances in the wild.
From an interview with Sy in The Penmen Review, Southern New Hampshire University Online Journal for Creative Writers. Read more of the interview here.
November, 2013
Go pig, go! There are now 100,000 copies of The Good Good Pig in paperback, and more than 40,000 copies in hardcover in the U.S. and Canada. And Christopher Hogwood has ventured overseas in Dutch, British, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Portuguese editions.
The Tapir Scientist has been chosen as an Outstanding Science Trade Book for Students K-12 for 2014. This list is a cooperative project of the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) and the Children’s Book Council.
The Journal of Children’s Literature Fall 2013 issue has a long interview with Sy Montgomery and the photographer Nic Bishop. Working together in the field they have created seven acclaimed children’s books. They have followed scientists in the field as they study snakes (18,000 in one big pit!), tarantulas, tree kangaroos (who knew that kangaroos climbed trees?), snow leopards, kakapos (“the world’s strangest parrot”), tapirs and cheetahs (forthcoming).
What’s next? Octopuses. But Sy does listen to her readers: “I have piles of great letters from kids. One child urged me to write about eels to show they don’t just want to electrocute people. I thought that was great.”
Thinking Deep. Sy will be the first of a dozen speakers at the day-long TEDx AmoskeagMillyard 2013. The day’s theme is “Mindset.” Sy’s talk is titled: “Thinking Deep: Octopus Mind, Eel Dreams and the Consciousness of the Other 99%.” Watch the TEDx talks streamed live, starting at 9 am here.
October, 2013
National Book Month 2013. The New York Public Library has created this guide to the Best Children’s Books of 2013. And who’s that we see waiting for readers, age 12 to 14, but our favorite tapir. This is a clever, inviting map that directs young readers to the next book.
August, 2013
The Octopus Whisperer. A short interview with Sy about her work with the octopus scientists on Moorea (near Tahiti). “You put on your wetsuit, go down with an underwater dive slate, and set about administering a personality test to octopus,” she said. “So you float there and take notes like a psychologist on whether this particular octopus to advances or retreats, changes color or reaches out, and so on.” That’s Sy at work underwater. Read more: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/octopus-whisperer-183901707.html
June, 2013
Just published: The Tapir Scientist: Saving South America’s Largest Mammal
If you’ve never seen a lowland tapir, you’re not alone. Most of the people who live near tapir habitat in Brazil’s vast Pantanal (“the Everglades on steroids”) haven’t seen the elusive snorkel-snouted mammal, either. In this arresting nonfiction picture book, Sibert winners Sy Montgomery and Nic Bishop join a tapir-finding expedition led by the Brazilian field scientist Pati Medici. Aspiring scientists will love the immediate, often humorous “you are there” descriptions of fieldwork, and gadget lovers will revel in the high-tech science at play, from microchips to the camera traps that capture the “soap opera” of tapir life.
May, 2013
The Jane Addams Children’s Book Awards are given annually to the children’s books published the preceding year that effectively promote the cause of peace, social justice, world community, and the equality of the sexes and all races as well as meeting conventional standards for excellence. The awards have been presented annually since 1953 by the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) and the Jane Addams Peace Association.
April, 2013
A Snake Cake — as well as a fabulous banner, good questions and student performances — greeted Sy at her presentation April 18 at Cutler School in Swanzey, NH
Fourth and fifth graders at Chamberlain School in South Burlington, Vermont showered Sy with their great artwork and letters after they talked by Skype. Some students had suggestions for subsequent books. Taken under consideration!
Consider a Skype session: Sy is dramatically limiting her appearances over the next 9 to 12 months as she concentrates on researching and writing her book on octopus. But happily, there’s Skype. Readers can visit with Sy in her office, meet her border collie and watch as Sy shares some of her treasures, including the shed exoskeleton of a tarantula and the beak of an octopus. Email Sy for details: sy@authorwire.com
March, 2013
Sy’s newest book for kids, Snowball the Dancing Cockatoo, sold out at its debut March 1 in New York at the Barnes and Noble on 86th Street. With video of Snowball dancing and talks by Sy, illustrator Judith Oksner and Irena Schulz, the founder of Snowball’s bird rescue, Bird Lovers Only, the New York event drew more than 100 people, including kids from three schools.
The dancing cockatoo is a charmer, but at Abby Emerson’s 5th Graders at La Cima Charter School in Brooklyn they love The Tarantula Scientist.
February, 2013
New book. All my proceeds go to benefit Bird Lovers Only.
Snowball the Dancing Cockatoo, for kids in grades 3 and up, is the true story of how an unwanted cockatoo achieved international fame as a YouTube sensation, television star, and scientific study subject, all by rocking out to the beat of his favorite tunes.
Snowball tells the story (well, this is what he would have said if his language skills were as good as his dancing.) But everything he says is true, including how he inspired the World’s First Bird Dance-Off Contest, became the subject of a groundbreaking study about music and the brain, and has now gone into teaching children how to dance and doing charity work.
The book is illustrated with the whimsical paintings of my friend, Judith Oksner.
All author’s proceeds from this book go to benefit Bird Lovers Only, the bird rescue where Snowball now lives.
How to get the book?
— Order through Birdloversonly.org (all these copies are signed by Sy and Judith!)
— Order through University Press of New England at www.upne.com/0872331563.html
— Ask for it at your local independent bookstore (the ISBN is 978-087233-156-3)
My friend and master quilter Mary Strzelec of Lynnwood, WA created this fabulous work of fabric art celebrating the Giant Pacific Octopus, star of my book-in-progress.
What an incredible gift! While others can sleep in the arms of Morpheus, I can sleep wrapped in the eight arms and 16,000 suckers of Enteroctopus dofleni–sans slime. Mary’s husband, Mike, has been an indispensable help with the book, discovering all sorts of obscure cephalapodan information.
Temple Grandin has been selected for the list of Notable Social Studies Trade Books for 2013. This list is a cooperative project of the National Council for the Social Studies and the Children’s Book Council.
At Heavy Medal, a School Library Journal blog, they have convened a “mock” Newbery Award contest, and thrown opening the judging for discussion. Temple Grandin is one of the books under consideration. Here’s what Heavy Medal says about Temple Grandin:
“Though I always point out that ‘no book is flawless,’ I’ve been hard pressed to find the flaws in this seamless and engaging read. Montgomery creates a “you are there” feeling both without intruding as author, but also while being totally transparent as author. It is clear, from the way she constructs her sentences and from her backmatter explanations, how she has put together each piece of her vivid narrative from interviews and other sources. This is not flashy writing, and the emotional punch always comes from the story itself, not from the heavy hand of an author driving it home. “Heart-warming-ness” of the story aside (which is where the Newbery committee will have to put it), this is a wonderfully constructed piece of nonfiction, tuned perfectly to its audience in every respect.”
Temple Grandin is on the CCBC Choices list for 2013. CCBC Choices is the annual best-of-the-year list of the Cooperative Children’s Book Center.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has chosen Temple Grandin as the recipient of the 2013 AAAS/Subaru SB&F Prize for Excellence in Science Books.
The AAAS prize celebrates outstanding science writing and illustration for children and young adults. This year’s finalists were selected by a panel of librarians, scientists, and science literacy experts. They chose the four winners out of nearly 170 books up for consideration.
The judges note: “Sy Montgomery’s excellent biography of Temple Grandin focuses not just on Grandin’s research and accomplishments, but also on the role her autism played not just in terms of obstacles, but also in terms of opportunities to see things differently. This is also an important message for children with autism or other disabilities because it provides them with a role model who broke barriers and made significant contributions to science and to society.”
The AAAS award will be presented in Boston in February.
Magnificent! The School Library Journal blog, Fuse #8, has chosen Temple Grandin as one of the One Hundred Magnificent Children’s Books of 2012.
December, 2012
Temple Grandin has been chosen by the New York Public Library as one of its One Hundred Children’s’ Books for Reading and Sharing.
November, 2012
The National Science Teachers Association has named Temple Grandin one of its Outstanding Science Trade Books of the year: “The autobiography of the autistic expert on animal treatment will be inspirational to a subset of students as well as to all readers.”
The Mind of the Octopus: “They’re so different from us. They can taste with their skin, have no bones, they can squeeze through a tiny opening, oozing as if they are a liquid themselves. A hundred pound giant pacific octopus can get through the opening the size of an orange. I mean unbelievable. But what I think is even more unbelievable is the fact that these guys have developed intelligence and emotions and personalities that are enough like ours that we can recognize them as such,”
The Wisconsin Public Radio show, To the Best of Our Knowledge, interviews Sy:
http://ttbook.org/book/sy-montgomer-octopus-mind
October, 2012
The Best American Science and Nature Writing, 2012 has been published. Sy’s Orion story on the octopus, “Deep Intellect,” is part of this collection.
Library Sparks
There’s a thorough interview with Sy at: http://www.highsmith.com/librarysparks/pages/web-resources-current
Sy talks about Temple Grandin, The Snake Scientist, Quest for the Tree Kangaroo, and about all sorts of other animals.
September, 2012
Highlights for Children
In its September issue, Highlights for Children ran a story on Sy’s children’s books, “Adventures with Animals: Pink Dolphins and Tree Kangaroos Inhabit the books of writer Sy Montgomery”. The story was written by Sy’s friend and neighbor, the children’s book writer Marcia Amidon Lusted, who lives up the street!
August, 2012
“Meet the Author” movie
A “Meet the Author” movie of Sy, filmed at home in Hancock, NH (with a guess appearance by Sally, her border collie) is now among the excellent videos available to teachers and librarians who have joined teachingbooks.net.
June, 2012
At the Cheetah Conservation Fund in Namibia
Sy spent the first part of June at the Cheetah Conservation Fund in Namibia, bathing in cheetah purrs and researching a new Scientists in the Field book with photographer Nic Bishop. CHASING CHEETAHS: The Race to Save Africa’s Fastest Cat, features CCF founder Laurie Marker and her staff’s extraordinary conservation work, and will be published next year. Nic Bishop took this photo of one of the very tame young cheetahs there who was captured by a farmer in infancy—so young he had to be bottle-fed to survive. Today he lives at CCF as an ambassador for his species, in the effort to protect wild cheetahs throughout their shrinking range.
May, 2012
At the Cheetah Conservation Fund in Namibia
Book Links, ALA Booklist’s supplement for librarians and teachers, featured a long interview with Sy about her biography of Temple Grandin in May.
May 18, 2012
Temple Grandin, Sy Montgomery & Dr. James Birge
Naturalist and author Sy Montgomery, animal scientist Temple Grandin, and Franklin Pierce University (FPU) President James Birge shared a moment of celebration over Montgomery’s new book about Grandin just prior to the FPU Commencement Exercises on May 12th. Sy Montgomery was awarded an Honorary Degree at last year’s FPU Commencement; this year, she was on hand to see FPU alumna Dr. Temple Grandin receive an Honorary Degree and to hear her remarks upon acceptance of the honor.
Montgomery’s book, Temple Grandin: How the Girl Who Loved Cows Embraced Autism and Changed the World, (published April 2012), is a tribute to Temple’s unique view of the world and how she brings her talents to improve the lives of humans and animals alike. Dr. Grandin is an autistic who uses her special way of seeing the world to design humane livestock facilities, and in doing advocacy work for people with autism. Montgomery remarked that Temple’s life “is a story of very broad compassion for those who can’t speak for themselves, both humans and animals. If not for the blessings of autism, these other minds, these minds and lives that are thinking and feeling, these lives would be so much more difficult – and our lives would be diminished.”
Octopus in Hebrew! Haaretz, in Jerusalem, has reprinted Sy’s Orion story. http://www.haaretz.co.il/magazine/1.1580659
Thomas Remp, a student photographer and writer Sy met during a visit to Franklin Pierce University, founded the website StudentatLarge.net to promote and inspire young people in their creative endeavors. Here’s his interview with Sy: http://www.studentatlarge.net/sy-montgomery.html
The Undercover Quilters strike again! This talented group of a dozen avid readers and quilters meet monthly create quilts inspired by their favorite books. The Good Good Pig was their first project.
You may recall seeing their quilts on display at the nationally-recognized Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show, which is posted under the information about The Good Good Pig on this website: symontgomery.com/?page_id=848
Now their amazing tribute to Christopher Hogwood and friends is hanging at Bank of American in Redmond, Oregon,
for the next two months.
Sy talked by speakerphone with about 30 children and their parents at the Mansfield/Richland County Public Library in Mansfield, Ohio on January 16. The children had read Kakapo Rescue and Quest for the Tree Kangaroo. Children’s Librarian Amanda Fensch set up the program. Sy thanks everyone for all the good questions.
One parent asked: How did you become interested in animals?
Sy’s answer: “I always loved animals, from the moment I could see. I was born in Germany, and before I was two I managed somehow to toddle into the hippo
pen at the zoo, to my parents’ horror. The hippos obviously didn’t bother me at
all, and I felt at ease among them.”
.
December, 2011:
Sy began a busy December speaking schedule with the enthusiastic students at Thatcher Brook Primary School in Waterbury and Crossett Brook Middle School in Duxbury, Vt.
Assemblies at both schools featured a Powerpoint show on some of the animals she’s met in her work. The kids correctly identified both the wombat and the tapir in the pictures!
At extended question-and-answer sessions for individual grades in the schools’ libraries, Sy’s books inspired thoughtful queries: How do you decide which animal/book to do next? How did the photographer take the close-ups of the tigers? What do you do if you get sick in the field? A boy always asked “What was the most dangerous animal you studied?” while a girl usually asked, “What was the cutest animal you’ve ever written about?” (The photo above was taken at Crossett Brook Middle School.)
Later on in the month, Sy spoke on her work “Off the Beaten Track” at the Peterborough Rotary’s well-attended luncheon, and Dec. 7, will speak on her first book “Walking with the Great Apes” as part of the Vermont Humanities Council’s First Wednesdays program in Montpelier, Vt. Later she’ll be driving down to Boston to WGBH to talk about octopuses.
Sy and Callie Crossley talk octopuses:
And there’s more octopus talk when Sy and Living on Earth visit the New England Aquarium:
http://www.loe.org/shows/segments.html?programID=11-P13-00046&segmentID=6
November, 2011:
Sy’s story “Deep Intellect” on the mind of the octopus in the November-December issue of Orion magazine is generating a great deal of interest in cephalopod consciousness!
The story was recommended:
as the top Longread of the week of November 1 on Longreads.com—picks of the best longform journalism stories of the week;
in Andrew Sullivan’s popular blog in The Daily Beast;
in the Boston Globe’s idea blog;
The story is featured in radio interviews with Sy on the national environmental radio show, Living on Earth and WRCT in Pittsburgh (we’ll post them when they’re released under “Media” on this website)
and in a live, online event, with New England Aquarium’s Scott Dowd and Animal Behaviorist Marc Bekoff hosted by Orion November 15 at 7 EST hosted by Orion (see story above for how to sign up and participate)
The story will also appear in Hebrew thanks to an Israeli news service!
August, 2011:
Sy and Nic will be traveling to the world’s largest wetland, the Pantenal, in Brazil in search of tapirs with Brazilian researcher Pati Medici for a new book in their Scientists in the Field series.Though it looks like an elephant crossed with a pig, the tapir’s closest relatives are actually horses and rhinos! Above is a photo by Pati of an adorable striped and spotted baby; and below is Pati giving a captive lowland tapir a welcome scratch.
May 26, 2011:
Sy’s Book Birdology honored by the Boston Authors Club as a Highly Recommended book in its awards for 2010. Visit the club’s website at http://www.BostonAuthorsclub.org.
June 27, 2011:
Sy and collaborating photographer Nic Bishop will accept the Sibert Medal, the highest honor in America for nonfiction children’s literature, at the American Library Association’s meeting in New Orleans for their book Kakapo rescue.
May 21, 2011:
Sy awarded Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters by Southern New Hampshire University. She’ll be joining the faculty as an associate this summer for the Masters of Fine Arts program.
May 18, 2011:
New Hampshire Magazine honors Sy as one of six “Remarkable New Hampshire Women of the World” at a breakfast celebration at Bedford Village Inn.
Sy’s graduation speech at Franklin Pierce was chosen by The Chronicle of Higher Education in this year’s roundup story, featuring the five best and most insightful 2011 commencement speeches on college and university campuses nationwide.
Sy and husband Howard Mansfield were awarded honorary Doctorates of Humane Letters by Franklin Pierce University.
At Franklin Pierce University, we prepare our students to make significant contributions to their professions and communities as citizens and leaders of conscience. Today, we honor an individual who has distinguished herself as an author, environmentalist, scientist and advocate of animal rights in this same tradition.
Sy Montgomery believes that only if we “learn to function as morally engaged citizens and be brave enough to lead others in sometimes difficult talks is there any hope of healing our poisoned, overcrowded world.” And, she has been ‘brave enough’ traveling to exotic and dangerous locations to research and tell the true insightful story.
This prolific and award-winning author has written over 15 books for both adults and children including the international bestseller, The Good Good Pig, about her relationship and love for her charismatic pig, Christopher Hogwood. She has never considered animals less than humans. Animals have always been her friends, teachers and inspiration. She has traveled from Cambodia to Brazil, from New Guinea to Mongolia, and beyond to learn from her animal teachers – the South East Asian golden moon bear, the tarantula, the Sundarban tiger.
Sy Montgomery, through her writings, has educated and inspired her readers to “treasure and protect this sweet green Earth.” She has revealed with the fine skill of her craft and vast knowledge of the vivid, rich lives of animals that, in the words of Henry Beston, are “gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear,” to bring us joy and deepen our understanding of this planet and all creatures. She has shown us that we can choose a new way and make a more compassionate world.
Because she is passionate and tireless in her dedication to the environment and all living species, because of her fearlessness in researching the beautiful yet often dangerous creatures in the wild, and because of her considerable humanity and the care she takes in telling accurate and compelling stories about these wild places and beautiful animals, Franklin Pierce University is proud, on this 14th day of May 2011, to confer upon Sy Montgomery the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa.
2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011