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.”

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.

Octopus in Hebrew! Haaretz, in Jerusalem, has reprinted Sy’s Orion story.

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. Click here for his interview with Sy.

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.

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.”

.

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:

http://www.wgbh.org/programs/The-Callie-Crossley-Show-855/episodes/Thurs-121511The-Improbably-Intelligent-Octopus-33778

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

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.