Firechief! It’s time for your close-up.
All posts by Sy Montgomery
The Turtles Take Korea
The Book of Turtles is now out in Korea.
The star of my new book-to-be: the giant manta ray. Carolina Martin of mantascostarica.org joined us in Ecuador and took this video.
Meet one of the three darling hatchling Wood Turtles who, thanks to a state permit, will be in Sy’s care for Head Starting to release in the spring! All three are busy and inquisitive about the big, new world.
Girish Shukla, at Timesnownews.com, has composed a good list of “15 underrated non-fiction books” that “offer fresh perspectives and valuable insights into history, science, culture, and personal growth. From unique narratives to thought-provoking themes, each book presents compelling ideas that deserve more recognition and a spot on your bookshelf.” You may recognize the first book on his list:
1. The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery
“This beautifully written book offers an intimate exploration into the lives of octopuses, showing how these intelligent, alien-like creatures can connect with humans on a profound level. Montgomery’s thoughtful approach blends science, personal reflection, and adventure as she explores the mysteries of marine life. Through captivating storytelling, the book invites readers to rethink animal intelligence and the connections we share with creatures beyond our own species.”
See the rest of the list here.
Turtles-in-training
Sy and Matt thank the children, parents, and helpers at the Sense of Wonder Camp in Martha’s Vineyard for hosting them — and for their performance as turtles-in-training.
Sy spoke about her turtle book to an enthusiastic audience at the Monarch Festival in Bethel, Maine, where she met this young fellow.
His sign says:
Dear Fire Chief,
Thanks for sending your people to Maine!
Love,
Myles
Sy’s new book coming in November, What the Chicken Knows, is a Fall Editor’s Pick in Library Journal.
Here are 5 key insights from Sy’s book: Of Time and Turtles: Mending the World, Shell by Shattered Shell.
1. Even common animals we might take for granted are astonishing wonders, and worthy of our awe.
2. What looks like a hopeless disaster may instead be turned into a real-life miracle
3. Anyone can make a difference that can last for generations, and heroes come in all different forms.
4. Time, too, has many different guises.
5. Taking a hand at mending our broken world is the best way to restore our own souls.
CAUTION: Snake May Be … Above Face Level
The Book of Turtles is a Sibert Honor Book. Sy and Matt (and his sainted wife Erin) flew out to the American Library Association convention in San Diego to receive the award, and even better, to be treated to a behind the scenes tour of the “herp house” at the San Diego Zoo. Those signs about “venomous snakes” have nothing to do with the librarians – we promise.
Guess who is talking turtles, and hummingbirds on New Hampshire Public Radio’s show,
Something Wild? Yup, The Turtle Wrangler and Friend to All Good Creatures: Sy. Three episodes: Baby Blanding’s Turtle Hatchlings, Baby Hummingbirds, and the final act, a visit with Fire Chief and the artist Matt Patterson. If a turtle could hold a paint brush, he’d be Matt. Here’s the first episode.
And here’s the second episode.
And the third, about the snapping turtle Fire Chief.
The German edition of Secrets of the Octopus is out.
We did something we never do – we appeared together to talk about what it’s like to have 
two writers in the house. We had the great pleasure of being interviewed by our neighbor, Tricia Rose Burt, on her wonderful podcast, No Time to be Timid. I’ve been a listener since she started. Tricia is a gracious host and a good listener. You get caught up in her enthusiasm for her guests and all those Southern “y’alls.” Listen at Apple Podcasts, https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/no-time-to-be-timid/id1619558493 or Spotify, or https://triciaroseburt.com/podcast/sy-montgomery-and-howard-mansfield-creating-a-writing-life
More Honor and Glory to Turtles. On Time and Turtles: Mending the World, Shell by Shattered Shell, is a finalist for the New England Independent Booksellers’ Association Nonfiction Award. See the list of finalists here.
One of the Best Books of 2024 — So Far
First Barnes & Noble chose the Secrets of the Octopus as the best of 2024 — so far. And now Amazon Books taps the Octos for their list. That’s two lists — six more? Anyone? Make it an even eight.
Sy had a good time talking to Annie Thoe, a Feldenkrais therapist and Nature Awareness teacher. They talked about octopus consciousness, Secrets of the Octopus and the National Geographic film which accompanies Sy’s book. Watch the interview on YouTube.
Good News: Things Will Go Horribly Wrong!
Dr. Sy. “I have good news and bad news about your future. First the bad news: Things are going to go horribly wrong. And now the good news: Things are going to go horribly wrong,” Sy told the Lesley University Class of 2024. Embrace the real world — full of dangers, beauty, and breathtaking surprises — that’s Dr. Sy’s Rx. She’s not a medical doctor, but, hey, she has an honorary Ph.D. from Lesley U. So listen up! Watch Sy here.
The Book of Turtles has won a Green Earth Honor Award from The Nature Generation. And it has also won a silver medal from the Nautilus Book Awards. The awards honor “Better Books for a Better World — books that support conscious living and green values, wellness, social change, social justice, and spiritual growth.”
Secrets of the Octopus has been named one of Barnes and Noble’s “Best Books of 2024 (so far).”
We Love Turtles! And Octopuses!
Kids, octopuses, good creatures all. After a warm welcome for Sy and Matt in Stoughton, Mass., they headed to Tenacre Country Day School in Wellesley to meet awesome earth lovers before the octo finale at Stoughton Library.
What is intelligence? How can we recognize it in other lifeforms on Earth, as well as in space? Sy talks to Cosmic Connection.
Sy loved hanging out with 500 librarians at the combined conference of the Utah Library Association and Mountain Plains Library Association. Sy’s keynote address was received with a standing ovation. Thank you to Patrick Horcherl, Marissa Bischoff, and all the other librarian/superheroes who made Sy feel so welcome.
The Book of Turtles has won the gold medal from the Cook Prize. The prize honors the best STEM picture book for children aged 8 to 10 and it is chosen by them. This year more than 11,000 children across the United States, Europe, and Asia voted. And they have spoken. They love The Book of Turtles.
Sy and Matt talked turtles with Connecticut Public Radio’s podcast, Where We Live. Listen here.
Ten books that will transform how you see nature
Ten books that will transform how you see nature. For Earth Day, The Washington Post asked ten authors to recommend books “that influenced their relationships with the natural world.” Sy talked about Farley Mowat’s Never Cry Wolf:
“The book moved me deeply. True, though originally published as a factual account, parts of it were later decried as fiction. (“Never let the facts get in the way of the truth,” Mowat would later tell me, when he generously welcomed me to his home while I researched my first book.) But while I’ve remained a stickler for facts in my own writing, this book showed me the importance of remaining true to matters of the heart as well — and that a writer must use not only the fruits of the intellect but also honor one’s emotion and intuition to tell a story that moves readers to action.”
See the rest of the suggested books here.
Everything’s coming up Octos on this week’s Boston Globe bestseller list. See Number 6:
And on the Other Coast: Secrets of the Octopus is Number 9 on the Seattle Times bestseller list.
Now in Japanese: Secrets of the Octopus. (And, we hear, in German, though we haven’t seen the book yet.)
The Book of Turtles has been short-listed for a Green Earth Book Award, a national honor for children’s books promoting environmental stewardship.
Tiktok Okto. They love octos, Sy’s new book, and OctoNation. Oklahoma octo-fan Cal Clifford’s pet octopus, Terrance, became a “Tiktoktopus” after videos of her unexpected babies went viral. Some two million folks have been following his pet octo’s 50 babies.
Seen above is Cal with his brother Lyle showing their prize loot from OctoNation. Their advice for all but the most serious (and wealthy) aquarists: get octo plushies, not pets! (In captivity, baby octopuses have an unfortunate tendency to eat each other.) And Cal’s father says, “It’s expensive, wet chaos” – but the whole family loves Terrance and her babies.
Sy is looking forward to joining Stoughton (Mass.) Reads for April 22 and 23rd. It’s all-out-octos for Earth Day.
Meanwhile on that other coast: Secrets of the Octopus has climbed to #6 on the Seattle Times bestseller list.
Sy is honored to share a Riverby Award with Matt Patterson, and sign copies at Books of Wonder in New York City. The Riverby Award is given by the John Burroughs Association, which was founded in 1921 to commemorate the life and works of the naturalist John Burroughs.
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Secrets of the Octopus is a bestseller. It’s number seven on the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association bestseller list.
Bookbub has chosen Of Time and Turtles as one of the great, uplifting nature books of spring. See their list here.
If you click on the top “marine life” books on Amazon, Sy’s books occupy 7 of the top 10 slots. How amazing is that?
Sy and Matt talk about their love of turtles, octopus and freshwater fish at the creativeprocess.info:
Sy: “I think that animals certainly don’t have all these widgets demanding their attention like we do. Their spirits are just not as atomized as ours are. We have so many little things flickering at the edge of our consciousness. When we pay attention to anything, we’re not paying that deep attention, but animals are. And they have senses that we do not. I mean, they’re aware of chemical cues that we completely miss. They can hear sounds we don’t hear. They see colors and kinds of light we can’t perceive, etc. But we all share a common ancestor. We share 90 percent of our genetic material with all placental mammals. So we really are all family…. It makes a human feel less lonely. So many humans I know, they’re just suffering terribly from loneliness even though they’re in a sea of other humans. Well, I never feel lonely. And I can be alone, so-called, in a landscape with no other human anywhere, and I feel nested and safe and at home. And I know you do, too, because there are all these other lives around us.”
Matt: “When you listen to your instincts, it’s the voices of your ancestors guiding you. The narration of your ancestors and not just your human ancestors going all the way back to when everybody was just one cell. And being connected to your origin in that way is very different from the Western world in which you’re off like an arrow, and you’ve left all that behind.”
The Peeple’s Choice Awards
Each spring, the Hancock Town Library is filled with Literary Peep Dioramas – scenes from books made of everyone’s favorite marshmallow Easter treat. This year two fine artists in town, Kim and Scott Cunningham, made this tribute to Sy’s The Good, Good Pig. If you’re in town, come vote for The Peeple’s Choice Awards.
Sy took the listeners of the Techstination podcast on a deep dive to explore The Secrets of the Octopus. Listen here.
Win a new book. OctoNation is thrilled to offer OctoFans a chance to win a copy of the newest National Geographic book, Secrets of the Octopus by Sy Montgomery and the founder of OctoNation, Warren K. Carlyle IV. Enter your name and email address to register.
Sy talks with Psychology Today about her new book, Secrets of the Octopus:
- Based on the latest scientific research and wonderful stories, ‘Secrets of the Octopus’ is a must-read.
- One of the most astonishing fields of inquiry centers on octopuses’ social lives; they’re not loners.
- Almost everything we once thought we knew about octopuses is wrong.
- And Sy says: “With everything I write, I aim to help readers join me in falling in love anew with this life and with the creatures in it. For once we do, we deepen our commitment to treat all our neighbors—human and non, vertebrate and invertebrate—with renewed respect and compassion. Who better than octopuses to show us the way?”
- Read her interview here.
Vote for Sy & Matt. The Book of Turtles has been nominated for an award from professional humane educators — and you, the hardshell faithful, can vote for it here, about halfway down the ballot. While there, cast your vote for the Most Accomplished Animal Ambassador. We confess that Henry the Ferret caught our eye. Henry looks like a worthy weasel.
The Book of Turtles is on the Long List for the Green Earth Award. Check out all the terrific titles on the list here.
Telling Secrets. Octonation – The Largest Octopus Fan Club founder Warren Carlyle and Sy talk about Sy’s new book, Secrets of The Octopus – which has octo-profiles by Warren. They also discuss its companion, three-part National Geographic TV film. Listen to the fabulous Zoo Logic podcast.
A meeting of the shells. After Sy and Matt brought their turtle show to the Boston Malacological Club, Sy was awarded honorary memberships.
The award will be presented at the Yale Club in New York on April 1.
In praise of the unhurried life. Nature Conservancy Magazine likes Of Time and Turtles: “Although the book is a skillful mix of science, philosophy and turtle lore, it’s about more than the hundreds of reptiles saved by two dedicated women and the team they built. By the book’s end, the motto of Turtle Rescue League founders Natashia and Alexxia – “Never give up on a turtle” – takes on a broader meaning that feels a lot like a testimony to the power of human compassion and the difference it can make in the lives of animals, no matter how unhurried.”
Sy and Warren Carlyle is founder of OctoNation, the world’s largest octopus fan club, recruited more Octo fans on Chicago’s WGN-TV’s Morning News show. Watch here.
Turtles all the way down … south
Turtles all the way down … south. The Hardshell Faithful turn out at the Savannah Book Festival to hear Sy and Matt talk about the their turtle books.
Get Out Alive — always a worthy goal, and a great name for the podcast on which Sy shared her turtle (and shark and tiger and octopus) adventures. Listen to the episode here.
All Creatures Good Good. The devoted fans of the PBS hit show, All Creatures Great and Small have picked their favorite books. And no surprise, there are three books by Sy: The Good Good Pig, How to be a Good Creature, and The Soul of an Octopus. Next season could the good vets be called on to treat an octopus on one of those farms in the Yorkshire Dales?
Sy is pleased to have seen an advance screening of National Geographic’s Secrets of The Octopus. (Sy wrote the book.) The film will premiere on the National Geographic channel on Sunday, April 21. It will be available the next day – which is Earth Day — on Disney+ and Hulu. Watch the trailer here.
Forget the red carpet. Yesterday, at the National Geographic shoot, it was the yellow carpet. Here’s Sy with the fabulous creators and talent behind the coming TV series, Secrets of the Octopus, right before their panel discussion with the TV critics in Los Angeles.
Jim Braude and Margery Eagan and the fine crew from their show — Boston Public Radio on WGBH — visit Fire Chief. Watch here.
“A seafood firm wants to farm octopus. Activists say they’re too smart for that,” reports NPR. A seafood company, Nueva Pescanova, plans to build tanks by a dock in the Canary Islands, the Spanish archipelago off the coast of Morocco. The company announced its plans several years ago. “Despite opposition, its permit requests are currently pending.”
Sy is “appalled,” she told NPR. Octopuses “are sensitive, curious, intelligent creatures with memories and with volition,” she said. They deserve better. Read the rest of the story here.
Marv Hoffman is one of Sy’s dear friends. Marv is an ace teacher who has mentored a legion of teachers. In his blog, he writes about Of Time and Turtles: “Week after week, Sy and Matt return to the Turtle Rescue League (TRL) to do whatever needs to be done for inhabitants of this loving home.
“Sy creates vivid portraits of many of the residents of TRL who acquire colorful names, usually based on the circumstances in which they’re found – Pizza Man, Fire Chief, etc. As with the octopuses, real relationships develop between their care givers and these strange creatures, who predate even the dinosaurs. I have to admit that I haven’t retained much knowledge about the various sub-species of turtles who pass through, but I do recall the individuals and cheer their recoveries or mourn their losses.
“This much would suffice to make an engaging book. There is a chapter in which Sy and Matt join TRL staff on a rescue mission to a beach where sea turtles are being washed ashore in ways that will lead to their deaths without the help of their human Samaritans. I read it with as much excitement as the sections I read in Kon-Tiki oh so long ago about its encounters with life-threatening storms.
“But there’s more, the part that explains the centerpiece of the title Of Time and Turtles. Because turtles live such long lives – some have been known to live as long as 200 years — the sense of time that surrounds them unfolds at a different rate than it does for us frenetic humans. Even their injuries heal at a different rate. It happens that Sy’s work with the turtles coincides with the Covid years which caused astonishing disruptions in the time sense of many people. As an example, my guesses at how long ago significant events in my life occurred are now way out of line with the reality.
“It’s as if Sy’s time with the turtles and our Covid time put us outside the traditional linear understanding of how things unfold. In the Jewish view of the events in the bible there is the following concept: “Ain mukdam v’ain m’uchar ba’torah.” There is no early and no late in the torah, which suggests a more circular view of time that challenges the idea that events are stacked like dominos forever poised to fall in exactly the same sequence.
“Sy quotes a scientist who speaks about “warm-blooded chauvinism,” the assumption that human views on understanding the natural world are the only possible ones. Once again, Sy has helped me step outside my skin into a universe of much broader and more diverse realities. Our creaturely arrogance is so profound it takes a hell of a book to accomplish that.”
The Book of Turtles is a Sibert Honor Book
Award season. The Book of Turtles is a Sibert Honor Book. It joins a very short list of the most distinguished nonfiction books for young readers published in English in 2023. The Sibert Medal, and four Sibert Honor books, are awarded yearly by the Association for Library Service to Children to “the distinguished informational books published in English” for children.”
More good news: The Cooperative Children’s Book Center of the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has named The Book of Turtles to their CCBC Choices 2024 list.
Bestseller in California Wine Country. Of Time and Turtles is number five on Sonoma’s bestseller list for the week of January 24. (The Sonoma Index-Tribune.)
Wild Reads. One of Sy’s favorite books growing up was Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat. It is her choice for Wild Reads: Experts Share their Favorite Animal-Inspired Books. The reading list is at the PBS Masterpiece Theatre website.
Sy has this to say about Never Cry Wolf:
“This book is among those that inspired me to embark on a career of studying and chronicling the lives of animals,” says Montgomery. “As a child, I loved his earlier account of life with his dog, Mutt, in The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be. His later and most famous title Never Cry Wolf affected me deeply. The book is a dramatic portrait of a scientist whose findings turn him into an activist on behalf of the animals he studied. Presented as nonfiction, later, some of his accounts were decried as untrue; but Mowat was true to matters of the heart. Like James Herriot, he lived the exhortation of St. Francis of Assisi: ‘Not to hurt our humble brethren is our first duty to them, but to stop there is not enough. We have a higher mission: to be of service to them whenever they require it.’”
Big City Newspaper Meets Turtles. Loves Turtles. The New York Times recommends new books this first week in January:
“Montgomery, one of our finest chroniclers of the natural world, turns her attention to a turtle sanctuary in which injured and neglected reptiles — many of them far older than the volunteers — are rehabilitated.
“The turtle emerges as an unlikely symbol of resilience and optimism — an example of what is possible when we refuse to give up on the most vulnerable among us.”
Sy has brought her octo-magic to a new anthology, Animal Dignity. Twenty writers, historians, ethnologists, artists, and philosophers explore how “we understand the dignity and value of non-human animals.” The book has a sterling line-up: Alexandra Horowitz (Dignity in Dogs); Jonathan Safer Foer (33,00 Birds); Martha Nussbaum (on the “capabilities” of animals); and a foreword by Jane Goodall. Have a look at the contents here.
Of Time and Turtles is on the move in California. It is #5 on the Sonoma Index-Tribune Bestseller List for January 3.
Turtle talk on Wisconsin Public Radio. Listen here.
Sy and Matt talk to Francesca Rheannon host of the Writer’s Voice podcast, and they win another convert to the Hardshell ones. Right after the interview, Francesca and her granddaughter signed up as volunteers at their local Turtle Rescue. Francesca told Sy: “You have converted me into a turtle enthusiast!” Listen to the Writer’s Voice here.
Of Time and Turtles is number 7 on the Boston Globe bestseller list
Of Time and Turtles is number 7 on the Boston Globe bestseller list for the week ending Dec. 17.
CultureLab, a podcast from the popular weekly magazine New Scientist, recommends the best ten nonfiction books of 2023, including Of Time and Turtles. Listen here for their other picks.
The teens who produce the podcast This Teenage Life, interview Sy (one of their heroes) and Matt, to learn how “animals can keep them grounded and inspired … in the fast-paced, tech-driven world we live in.” Listen here.
School Library Journal has announced the 2023 Undies Case Cover Awards. (Translation: The best book cover design hiding under the book jacket.) Winner of the “Zoom in Award” is a certain turtle book. (We would have called this “The Hard-Shell Award.” See the others winners here.
“Having explored the philosophical question of consciousness in, The Soul of an Octopus, for my next big book, I wanted to explore the philosophical question of time. Time is a mystery, just like consciousness. We wonder, you know, what is it? Is it real? Does it flow through us? Do we flow through it? What do we do with it? Who has it?
“And who better than turtles to help me understand time, these ancient creatures who evolved at the same time as the dinosaurs, who have great long lifespans, who have wisdom and who understand waiting. And little did I know that I would conduct this inquiry into the nature of time during the pandemic, when time stopped.
“It was a great time to know turtles, because turtles know ancient time, sacred time. They know the kind of time that isn’t ruled by the calendar and the clock. In general, they don’t hurry, they don’t feel the sort of Damocles over their heads for deadlines. They get everything done when it needs to be done. And they drew me into a wholly different kind of time, the kind of time the Greeks called, “kairos,” or sacred time. And you just cannot be with a turtle without feeling you’re apprenticed to someone really wise.”
Bravo to the students, staff, and parents at the 48 participating schools of Douglas County, Colorado. Inspired by the animals in Becoming a Good Creature (the choice for their all-district read) they donated personal care products to families in need, wrote poems and essays, and created beautiful bookmarks and stickers about courage and kindness. Here’s a sampling of some of their wonderful art:
Jeanne Urda, former librarian at the Townsend, Massachusetts, Public Library, and a turtle’s best friend, created this tree to celebrate our hardshell heroes.
— Kirkus Reviews has selected The Book of Turtles as one of the best picture books of the year.
— The Chicago Public Library says The Book of Turtles is one of the year’s Best Informational Books for Younger Readers.
— And it is a Booklist’s Editors’ Choice for 2023.
— As well as a Nerdy Book Club Award winner.
“In the vast ocean of children’s literature, Betsy Bird has carved a niche for herself, meticulously reviewing books for her ‘101 Great Books for Kids Committee’,” says the online news outlet BNN. One of this year’s spotlighted picks is The Book of Turtles. It’s a “standout, lauded for its engaging presentation of turtle facts.”
Octo-Curious. “When Vermont sculptor Art Costa first read The Soul of an Octopus, he was fascinated by author Sy Montgomery’s description of her friendship with an eight-legged ‘extraterrestrial,’” reports the Brattleboro Reformer. “Curious about other organisms living far below the surface of the ocean, Costa dove into research that became his most recent body of work, “Sounds Deep,” currently on view at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center.
The museum’s director of exhibitions, Sarah Freeman, describes “Sounds Deep” as “the conjuring of a beautiful world we seldom see, a world of strange, sightless creatures that inhabit the darkest depths of the ocean.” Constructed from reclaimed cardboard, paper mache and other natural materials, Costa’s “deep-sea denizens are richly textured and colored, and their faceless forms are full of personality and humor,” Freeman says.
Art Costa’s exhibit at the Brattleboro Museum runs until March 9, 2024. More information here.