Tierisch Gute Freunde. Becoming a Good Creature is now available in German from Diogenes Verlag.
Thurber congratulates Matt Patterson for his fine paintings of turtles that are in the Spring 2022 issue of Orion with an excerpt from Sy’s forthcoming book Travels in Turtle Time, which will be published by HarperCollins in fall 2023.
Just published: The Seagull and The Sea Captain, Sy’s picture book with her artist and friend Amy Schimler-Safford. It’s the true story of an inter-species friendship. Here’s the cover, and a photo of the real captain and his herring gull friend, Polly. You can even sail on Capt. Ellis’ schooner, the Thomas E. Lannon, out of Gloucester Harbor.
Know your enemy. This grouse is studying up on a skilled adversary by reading an advance readers copy (or bound galley) of Sy’s forthcoming book, The Hawk’s Way to be published in May. Get a copy for the literate bird you know.
The Wonders of Life Underwater. Sy joined an all-star underwater line-up on the radio show and podcast Constant Wonder to talk about intelligent life in the sea. On the show are Craig Foster, the filmmaker who brought us the magical My Octopus Teacher, the marine biologist Helen Scales, author of the fabulous Poseidon’s Steed: The Story of Seahorses, from Myth to Reality, among other books, and Luke Harris, a high school junior at Horace Mann School in New York City who has created Inspired by the Deep, a competition for fellow students. Listen here.
Monet is eating again! Not bad for a baby turtle who was dead two weeks ago! (See below in the January news.) The key was providing tiny bits of food, including chopped dried mealworms (a birthday gift from Jack McWhorter) live mealworms (thanks to Blackfire Farm) and bits of ReptiSticks (green in the video). Sy reports, “I’m so happy!”
Eight Arms, Eight Decisions. Octopuses have a complex neural network running throughout their body. They can make different decisions for each arm without having to send messages back up to the central brain. How can this be? Sy discusses octopus consciousness on the BBC radio show, NatureBang in the episode, Octopuses and the Mind-Body Problem. Philosopher Julian Baggini, author of How the World Thinks, joins the discussion. Listen here.
Maria Popova in her blog The Marginalian – formerly called Brain Pickings – choses The Hummingbirds’ Gift as one of her favorite books of the past year. See all her picks here.
Sy petted an octopus, caressed a sea slug, and kanoodled with a giant clam; met a sea turtle resurrected from being poisoned, drowned and hooked, and a pelican whose pouch was under repair; and strolled the Ding Darling National Wildlife refuge and “shelled” at Sanibel Island’s famous beach. All thanks to the good folks at the Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum, who invited her to speak on octopus at their 25th anniversary celebration, drawing a crowd of more than 200 people. Thanks also to Clinic for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife (CROW) for saving that sea turtle, the pelican, and the 6,973 animal patients they saw last year.
Monet resurrected! On Saturday morning, January 22, Sy found one of her four baby painted turtles had drowned! Monet was stuck beneath their floating basking platform, trapped freakishly in a suction cup that had come undone. (This cup holds the platform in place.) But after 45 minutes of turtle CPR, he began breathing again — and now Monet is fine! In the photo he is recovering in his warm, dry hospital box, which I floated in the larger tank.
Should you ever need to revive a turtle, gently pull and push the turtle’s limbs in and out to get the lungs working, Gently pressing on the plastron may re-start the heart. Sy had seen this done once while visiting the wonderful Turtle Survival Alliance in South Carolina, and her friends at Turtle Rescue League in Southbridge, Mass., have used it several times to successfully revive drowned turtles.
The New Hampshire Union Leader has caught up with the story. Read it here.
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.
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.
Good Creatures. The Krempe Center discuss critters with Sy.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.
One million. There are now one million copies in print of Sy’s books for children and young adults. That’s a world of snakes in a pit, kangaroos climbing trees, cheetahs on the run, pink dolphins in the Amazon, mischievous kakapos, invisible but ever-present snow leopards, shape-shifting octopuses, condors making a comeback, matriarchal hyenas, migrating wildebeest, elusive snorkel-snouted tapirs, mysterious great white sharks, man-eating tigers, and at the head of the parade, one small girl and her loyal Scottie, Molly. Sy thanks all these animals, the scientists studying and protecting them, her fabulous editor Kate O’Sullivan, and most of all, her critter-loving readers.
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.
Richards Free Library director Justine Fafara and Sy on the porch of the library
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.
“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.”
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.
Salt Project video on hummingbirds
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.
Roctopus on Visualhunt
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.
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.”
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.
South American Crowned Wood Nymph. Photo by Tianne Wirtanen
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.”
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.’”
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.”
Sy enjoyed her visit via Zoom to the Chelmsford Library in Massachusetts for their All-Community read of How to be a Good Creature.
State Library and Archives of Florida on Visualhunt.com
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.
Tierisch Gute Freunde. Becoming a Good Creature is now available in German from Diogenes Verlag.
