Writer’s Digest meets “The Chief.” Sy tells them about the star of her turtle book:
A year ago, a friend about my age (I’m 65) moved in up the street. We see each other every few days. Sometimes we walk together. Some days I don’t see him at all, but that’s OK. He doesn’t always feel like coming out of his pond, because he is a 42-pound wild snapping turtle.

Fire Chief, as we call him, used to live in a pond by a fire house in a different state. All the firefighters knew him…. Read the rest here. The Chief would like that.

Of Time and Turtles is making the year-end lists:
— Amazon’s Best Books of the Year 2023
— The Washington Post: 50 Notable Works of Nonfiction. “The Year’s Best.”
— Chicago Public Library: Must-Read Books of 2023
— Smithsonian Magazine’s 10 Best Science Books of 2023

Matt Patterson, Turtle artist extraordinaire talks to “Inquiry” on WICN.org Listen here.

Matt Patterson and Sy joined their friends at Massachusetts School Library Association for a talk on how we learn from turtles. Listen to the podcast here.

Sy always enjoys talking with her wonderful friend, evolutionary biologist Marc Bekoff. He shares their conversation in his Psychology Today column. A few highlights:

“I exist in a state of awe, living among all the stunningly beautiful and talented species around me in this gorgeous, diverse, abundant, and broken world. To call attention to their glories, I write about rare and endangered species; about misunderstood and overlooked species; about animals we already know and love. Turtles fall into all these categories at once. Everyone loves turtles, and everyone has seen a turtle. But few of us recognize their astonishing powers—some climb, some hunt, some can run faster than a child doing the 100-yard dash. Or that, despite that some species are common, turtles as a group are the most critically endangered vertebrates on the planet. I write about the individual turtles I met during the pandemic to let them educate us all, especially about how we can help them.

“My major goal is to generate hope during an era of despair; to explore the nature of time during a moment in history when time seemed to stop; and to ponder with kindness and generosity gender and disability issues—two of our human heroes are transgender, one is blind; and many of our turtles are living their best lives despite disabilities most people would consider terrible.

“We think we know turtles, but we do not…. These animals are gifted with extraordinary powers with senses beyond our own, vocal communication, excellent memories, and powerful emotions, to name just a few.”

Read the rest of the interview here.

Nice work if you can get it. While in Providence, Sy and Matt got a backstage tour of the Roger Williams Park Zoo. Sy fed La Roo, a tree kangaroo, La Roo’s favorite treat: Cheerios. She also fed rose petals to this baby two-toed sloth.

The Kindred podcast welcomes Sy to talk about turtles and octopuses. “For us,” say hosts Kate and Jenn, “Sy Montgomery embodies Kindred and is an inspiration and lamplighter in a time when this planet needs as many enlightened leaders as possible.” Listen here.

Scenes from the Road. Sy and Matt are on the West Coast preaching the Hardshell Gospel. To the right is a certain turtle book at the Los Angeles airport (LAX as it is better known). And below, the children of the Nesbit School, near San Francisco, welcome their turtle-loving elders.

Bright Lights, Big City. Sy and Matt got to see their name in lights when they read at Portland’s famous Powell’s Books.

“Best. Turtle. Book. Ever.” The Evanston, Illinois, Public Library has announced it’s annual 101 Great Books for Kids List. And guess what? They love The Book of Turtles: “Think you know turtles? Think again! An up-close-and-personal deep dive into the species with all its weird and wonderful qualities. Best. Turtle. Book. Ever.”

Nice work if you can get it – Part II. On their way to their Florida readings, Sy and Matt met these Galapagos tortoises at a turtle sanctuary.

Listen to Sy and Matt on WAMC’s Roundtable show. “Hopeful and optimistic, Of Time and Turtles is an antidote to the instability of our frenzied world. Elegantly blending science, memoir, and philosophy, and drawing on cultures from across the globe, this compassionate portrait of injured turtles and their determined rescuers invites us all to slow down and slip into turtle time.”

What turtles can teach us about time. Sy talks with host Caroline Feraday at KCLU in Thousand Oaks, California. Listen here.

The Washington Post raves about Of Time and Turtles:

Few writers are better than Montgomery at capturing the wonder of animals without taming them. She writes that the eyes of an Indochinese box turtle evoke “the polished stones you find in a clear stream, and carry with them a hint of a stone’s ancient patience.” Many of Montgomery’s best similes are like this, equating one natural thing to another in a way that suggests a filiating network of correspondences and connections that might ordinarily go unnoticed. But she is equally good at capturing the often transformative experience of human contact with animals….

On more than one occasion I had to put the book down because I was sobbing, sometimes simply because turtles are just that special….

Like all of Montgomery’s work, then, “Of Time and Turtles” is a book that will make you want to be not a better human but a better animal. Hers is an oeuvre that encourages us to contemplate our continuity with other creatures, proving that our responsibility for their well-being is not some God-given, Adamic burden but a consequence of our culpability for damaging the world that they share with us, and we with them.

Sy shares 5 key insights from her new book, Of Time and Turtles, with The Next Big Idea Club, including:

“We all think we know turtles. Everyone has seen them basking on a log. Most of us have seen one, or helped one, as it slowly crossed a road in the spring. But much of what we know about turtles is wrong, and much of what we are learning is astonishing.

“Turtles aren’t just these slow, somewhat hapless creatures who fall over on their backs and can’t get up. There are turtles so fast that they can outrun a 10-year-old in a 100-yard dash. There are turtles who hunt. There are turtles who sleep in trees and have grasping tails to help them climb. There are turtles with googly eyes, turtles who breathe through their butts, turtles who pee through their mouths, and turtles whose shells glow in the dark. Recent research shows that turtles even talk: a test of 50 different species found all of them used vocal communication. Some baby turtles start communicating with their nestmates and mothers before they have even hatched out of their eggs. Scientists have found that at least 15 species of turtles bask in moonlight as well as sunlight; that some turtles learn mazes as fast as lab rats; and that turtles have distinctive personalities, long memories, and deep emotions.”

What can writers learn from turtles? The New York Times asked Sy for their column, Inside the Bestseller List. Sy answered:

“Turtles embody patience and fortitude,” Montgomery said during a phone interview. These are endangered traits for all humans, since we’re increasingly distracted by what she described as “little buzzing, wiggling, flicking, blinking gadgets…. As a writer, you can’t have that. You have got to be alone with your thoughts and your words.”

Sy added: “When a turtle looks at you, when a turtle bathes you in its laser focus, when it favors you with its attention, you feel singled out and glorified,” Montgomery said.

BookBub loves Of Time and Turtles: “This book will open your eyes to the hidden beauty of our shelled friends.”

Sy and Matt talk turtles with Tess Terrible host of Where We Live on Connecticut Public Radio. Listen here. And with Robin Young, host of Here & Now on WBUR. Listen here. And also: Sy and Matt join Dan Skinner, host of Conversations, on Kansas Public Radio. Listen here.

Meet the Fire Chief. A 42-pound, wild snapping turtle, Fire Chief was hit by a truck in 2018, his shell cracked and bloodied, his legs and tail paralyzed. But the 60- to 80-year-old turtle had a lot of life in him. At Turtle Rescue League, Sy and Matt were tasked with his physical therapy—which included exercising with his bespoke wheelchair. Read all about him in Of Time and Turtles. And watch the Chief here in this video.

Sy talks with Krys Boyd, host of KERA’s Think about the patience of turtles and the amazing work of the Turtle Rescue League. Listen here.

Otis has his fall reading picked out. From Instagram:

Otis and I are so excited to partner with @marinerbooks and @sytheauthor to give YOU the chance to win a hardcover copy of Sy’s brand new book “OF TIME AND TURTLES.” This book is incredible and includes work from my friend and favorite artist @stoneridgeartstudios! Sy is not only an incredibly talented author but she is the biggest sweetheart I think I’ve EVER met. She’s quite the fan of Otis too, ya know. #otistheturtle #oftimeandturtles #animalbooks #turtlebook #turtles #tortoises #turtlesofinstagram #reptilesofinstagram #saveturtles #turtleconservation #turtlenerd #wildlife #foryou #fyp #giveaway #gardenstatetortoise #babyturtle #babytortoise

Sy’s new book, Of Time and Turtles, will be published on September 19. Watch this short video about the book – 1 minute and 30 seconds – and count all the turtles. This video has more turtles per second than anything else you’re likely to see today. Watch here.

Sy had a wonderful Zoom talk with her new friend, Si Wu, a reporter with Sanlian Youth magazine in Bejing (circulation 150,000), which publishes articles on culture, history, science, and the arts for teenagers in China. She had copies of several of Sy’s books in Chinese and showed Sy the covers.

Sy and Matt had fun entering their float of a big paper mâché snapping turtle in Hancock’s Old Home Day parade. With one of the turtle ambulances at Turtle Rescue League in the lead, the snapping turtle –created by Matt Patterson–was heralded by Jason D. Adams playing the tuba and pulled by their young assistants, Ellis and Nora. The Big Turtle was honored as the Most Creative Float at Old Home Day. Everyone loves turtles.

The Denver Book Club gives How to Be A Good Creature three out of four stars. In The Denver Post, reader Neva Gronert says, “Highly recommended for all animal lovers. (And now I want to read her other books.)”

LibraryReads is a list of the top ten books published this month that library staff across the country have voted on as their favorites. For September LibraryReads has chosen Of Time and Turtles.

Everyone loves turtles! Another Hardshell Crowd turns out to hear Sy and Matt read from The Book of Turtles. This group is at Balin Books in Nashua, New Hampshire.

Booklist gives Of Time and Turtles a starred review:
Lauded nature writer Montgomery has enthralled readers with her avidly chronicled adventures with octopuses, hummingbirds, and hawks. This time turtles take over her life…. An entrancing storyteller who illuminates facts and feelings with sterling precision, Montgomery recounts dramatic and sweet interactions with these “unlikely, surprising animals,” describing a wondrous array of personalities, including that of the astoundingly resilient, attentive, and gigantic snapper called Fire Chief. … Deeply affected by these highly intelligent, sensitive earthlings, Montgomery contemplates how nature marks “turtle time, renewing the covenants that keep the world alive and offering us the stuff of eternity.”

Find out how Sy answered these questions:
* Would you jump at an opportunity to go into space? Why or why not?
* Have you ever been bitten by an animal, wild or domestic?
* Which of your book subjects or characters haunts you the most?
And more. Read the interview here.

Sy met “awesome turtles and awesome people” at the 21st annual symposium on The Conservation of Biology of Tortoises and Freshwater Turtles in Charleston, South Carolina. Sy gave the keynote address about her forthcoming book, On Time and Turtles: Mending the World, Shell by Shattered Shell.

Sy talks turtles with Donna Sherman on the Sparks in Action Podcast: Uplifting Each Other One Action at a Time.

Sy has been honored with the Ruth & James Ewing Arts Awards for Literary Arts. This is what the presenter said:

Sy Montgomery’s love of animals was frightfully apparent at an early age. She tells the story of breaking free from her parents at the Franklin Zoo, to be discovered later in the hippo pen, seemingly at ease and undaunted by one of the wild’s most dangerous creatures.

“I was fine, and the hippo was fine,” she says. “My parents were not fine!”
Sy is the author of 35 nonfiction books about nature and animals, and a winner of a Ruth and James Ewing Arts Awards for literary arts this year. Through her extensive travels, she says, “I’ve just met the most incredible people and the most incredible turtles. And I’ve met incredible dolphins, and I’ve met incredible tigers and I’ve met incredible snow leopards. The animals always come through. They always show you something astonishing.”
At one point, she had wanted to be a veterinarian, but her father had been reading her newspaper news stories about animals under threat in the wild. Her calling, as it turned out, was to educate readers, particularly children, about the wonders of animal life.

She majored in magazine journalism, French language and literature and psychology at Syracuse University, where she met her husband, Howard Mansfield, also a winner this evening.

After graduating in 1979, took reporting jobs in New York and New Jersey. While in New Jersey, her father gave her a ticket to Australia, but Sy wasn’t going to be a tourist. She joined Earthwatch, which pairs volunteers with scientific and conservation projects around the world. The organization connected her with a wombat preserve in southern Australia.
“The principal investigator for that project … could see that I was on fire to do this, that I just was in my element and I loved it.”

So, she quit her newspaper job and moved to the Outback. Her newsroom experience influenced her writing, honoring a rule that writing must be understandable.
“Children are just as smart as adults … but they haven’t been alive long enough to have the same vocabulary or to be exposed to so many of the concepts that we take for granted. So, you just put yourself in their shoes,” she says.

Sy takes a field journal with her on all trips and writes a nightly essay. After a couple of years of this, she’s ready to merge them into a book. “You don’t want to start until you kind of know where you’re going to end.”

Sy and Matt were welcomed by the turtle faithful at Water Street Books in Exeter, New Hampshire.

Sy and Matt enjoyed their visit to Left Bank Books in Belfast, Maine. So many readers came they had to move to a bigger space across the street at First Church. They sold out of The Book of Turtles — but Sy and Matt signed a stack of full-color, oversize, turtle-themed bookplates for the next batch of books that are coming.

Kids Book A Day is a book blog by Janet Dawson. She’s the librarian at the Rebecca Johnson Elementary School in Springfield, Massachusetts. Janet recently recommended The Book of Turtles:

“Pros: Montgomery has a knack for focusing on facts and information that will be of most interest to readers. The acrylic paintings look almost like photos and show incredible details of a wide variety of turtles. Kids who already love turtles will be thrilled, and others may become fans after reading this book.

“Cons: I wish this book had been around during my daughter’s decade-long obsession with turtles.”

Reviewers love The Book of Turtles:

Publishers Weekly: “Montgomery and Patterson astonish with this fact-driven turtle tribute…. Every page is an authoritative delight in this conservation-minded ode poised to turn anyone into a turtle lover.”

Also in Publishers Weekly, Kenny Brechner, owner of DDG Booksellers in Farmington, Maine, notes the bestselling children’s books of the season, saying: “The presence of Sy Montgomery’s The Book of Turtles on the list was no surprise both because we put it right by the counter and because it is amazing. What a sublime concordance of information and imagery.”

The Horn Book: “Sometime around 240 million years ago—about the time of the first dinosaurs, and 9 million years before the first crocodile—the shell invented the turtle.” With this cheekily thought-provoking opening sentence, acclaimed science writer Montgomery introduces turtles to young readers.”

Publisher’s Weekly is out with the first review of Sy’s new book to be published this fall, Of Time and Turtles: “In this moving outing, National Book Award finalist Montgomery reports on the efforts of the Turtle Rescue League…. Montgomery captures the joy in the team’s successes and the sorrow in their losses…. It’s an enjoyable if at times somber account of the everyday travails of dedicated conservationists.”

When Peter Singer’s Animal Liberation was published in 1975, it changed the world – not immediately, but ever since. It’s a landmark work, like Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962), or Jane Jacob’s The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961). And like those books, Animal Liberation was mocked and attacked. Singer was dismissed for saying that animals have rights and should be treated with respect.

But ever since then, Singer’s call to treat animals humanely is reforming the world. The European Union, for example, now bans hen cages, tight pig stalls, and veal crates. At least nine states have adopted these standards. McDonalds and the largest supermarket chains will sell only cage-free eggs by 2026.

When Sy read Singer’s book, back in the early 1980s, she immediately became a vegetarian. The book has had a similar effect on New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, who says, “For the last half-dozen years, I’ve avoided meat, in part, because of Singer’s writing.” (Read Kristof’s column, “The Revolution on Your Plate.” June 11, 2023. It may be behind a paywall.)

Kristof also “stopped eating octopus after reading a book about their intelligence and empathy.” Hmm… could that be The Soul of an Octopus? — A book by a writer who was inspired by Peter Singer. This is one way change happens.

Singer has issued an updated edition, Animal Liberation Now. Pick it up and continue the revolution.

Sy is thrilled to have been honored in the name of her friend and collaborator, photographer Eleanor Briggs — founder of the visionary Harris Center for Nature Conservation in Hancock, New Hampshire. At a ceremony that featured a moving speech by Eleanor, another by Sy, and four live turtles, Sy received the first of what shall now be an annual award, bestowed upon a conservationist whose work reflects Eleanor’s power to protect and celebrate our environment.

The Paso Robles City Library in California has selected The Soul of an Octopus as its featured book for the month of June. Readers will gather to discuss all things octo on June 21.

Atlas Obscura says that you should read The Soul of an Octopus — “a captivating dive into the mysterious world of octopuses.” It’s one of “Seven Books to Inspire Your Next Nature Adventure.”

Townsend, Massachusetts, celebrates The Book of Turtles with this storywalk at their library.

On the road with Sy and Matt. Here are a few scenes from Sy and Matt’s West Coast book tour for The Book of Turtles. They are visiting Peninsula College on Washington state’s gorgeous Olympic Peninsula. Sy is a Writer in Residence.

They are in Washington State thanks to The Book of Turtles, but they are meeting octopus fans as well. This young ceph-lover joined them after Sy’s Studium Generale presentation at Peninsula College to screen the excellent film My Octopus Teacher.

They also visited the Kitsap library, greeting an SRO crowd for their evening reading, after stopping by the Poulsbo Sea Discovery Center (seen above). They ended the day on the ferry to Seattle where they talked turtles at Third Place Books in Lake Forest.

It’s not just all turtles, all the time. At Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo one of their highlights was meeting Buba the penguin.

They also visited with Elanna, a Matschie’s tree kangaroo & her little joey, thanks to Senior Conservation Scientist Lisa Dabek (star of Sy’s Quest for the Tree Kangaroo).

Catch Sy and Matt on the air for World Turtle Day, May 23:

Having arrived in California, Sy and Matt are making new friends at the Turtle Conservancy in Ojai.

Sy talks to Sam Matey for his substack newsletter, The Weekly Anthropocene. They discuss some of Sy’s animal adventures with wombats in the Outback, tigers in Bangladesh, whales in the Caribbean, octopuses near and far, and turtles, rehabilitated and freed. Read this fine interview here.

Booklist loves The Book of Turtles. In a starred review, Booklist says that Sy “is in her element here, sharing her knowledge and enthusiasm for turtles with readers. The book’s spare design creates a showcase for Patterson’s lifelike acrylic paintings of turtles viewed from every angle, including g a cutaway picture of a turtle’s bones and shell. A beautiful, informative introduction to turtles.”

The Voyages of Sy Montgomery. See the entire map here.

Sam Matey has mapped Sy’s travels to write her 35 books. You can catch up with Sam Matey at his Substack newsletter sammatey.substack.com or email him: samuelmatey@g.ucla.edu)

Gloucester Loves Polly. Cape Ann magazine has chosen “The top Gloucester-related books of all time.” On a list that includes Sebastian Junger’s The Perfect Storm and childhood-favorite Virginia Lee Burton’s Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel, there is Polly, our seabird hero of the harbor: The Seagull and The Sea Captain by Sy Montgomery with fine illustrations by Amy Schimler-Safford.

This early and enthusiastic reader is Otis – New Jersey’s rising internet star. His first online video drew half a million views. Otis is an exceptionally personable Eastern Box Turtle who lives at Garden State Tortoise, a reptile rescue and breeding facility.

Sy and turtle artist extraordinaire Matt Patterson are going back to college in May. They’ll be in residence at Peninsula College on Puget Sound in Washington State:

What time is it? It’s turtle time. Sy and artist Matt Petterson’s new turtle book is here. Watch a short video with lots of cool turtles walking around.

Look! Adorned with compelling art by the inimitable Matt Patterson, here’s the brand-new cover for Sy’s September nonfiction book, Of Time and Turtles: Mending the World, Shell by Shattered Shell (Mariner Books/HarperCollins). You can pre-order online, ask your local indie bookseller, or come meet Sy and Matt at their local bookstore, The Toadstool Bookshop, Peterborough, New Hampshire.

The Good Good Pig has just had its 23rd paperback printing. There are now 125,000 paperbacks in print.

Sy enjoyed catching up with the amazing Temple Grandin at the Tucson Book Festival. A dozen years ago, Sy first got to know Temple when she was writing Temple Grandin: How the Girl Who Loved Cows Embraced Autism and Changed the World.

Last week Sy and her friend the artist Rosemary Conroy visited a few humpback whales out in the ocean down toward the Dominican Republic.

Sy visits NASA’s Goddard Center – Virtually. She’ll be talking about How to be a Good Creature, Wednesday, March 8, 10 to 11 am. You can watch here.

And on Saturday, March 18, Sy will be at Florida Atlantic University speaking at the Brainy Days 2023: A Celebration of Neuroscience:

Sy says: “One of the most exciting (human) encounters of my life was meeting Alan Alda and introducing him to Rudy the Giant Pacific Octopus. He and producer Graham Chedd had me as a guest again on his splendid podcast Clear and Vivid — which can be heard February 21.” Listen to all the great episodes of Alan’s podcast.

Creatures on the move. Coming out in paperback this year: Condor Comeback (May), The Hyena Scientist (August), Becoming a Good Creature (September), and next spring, The Magnificent Migration (April 2024).

You can now listen to Sy reading one of her earliest books, Search for The Golden Moon Bear, which was published in 2002. Listen to a sample.

Wayback Machine. Sy recently came across this old newspaper clipping from The Boston Globe, circa 1996. Back then Sy was writing a nature column for the Globe’s science section. A reader wrote in to find out if she was related to another of the Globe’s writers.

Sy is delighted to see The Hawk’s Way honored by The Christian Science Monitor as one of the Best Books of 2022. Check out all the good books here.

Love Little Lives. Sy enjoyed her visit to the Concord Museum to sign books and meet some of her fans at the annual Family Trees gathering. The Concord Museum, fresh off a sparkling expansion, looked festive with Christmas trees throughout. This one is decorated to celebrate Sy’s book, Becoming a Good Creature. Christopher Hogwood rules the tree from on high. Sy was the honorary chair of this year’s event. “Family Trees is one of the happiest and funnest events I know,” Sy says. “Kids, holidays, and reading–what could be better? What an honor it is to be honorary chair of this wonderful event. I can’t wait to connect with all the families this year and hang out with the kids amid the beautiful, decorated trees–presided over by the surely-smiling spirits of Emerson and Thoreau.”

Everybody out of the pool! Sy’s baby Blanding’s turtles, who she’s head-starting (with a Massachusetts state permit) for release in the spring, enjoy basking together on their platform in the full-spectrum light of the heat lamp. Sy says: “I love them so much!”

An Island Meets an Octopus. The Nantucket Atheneum has announced its choice for its 2023 One Book, One Island community read. This winter Nantucket’s readers have voted to read and discuss, The Soul of an Octopus.

Just published: The Korean edition of The Journey of the Pink Dolphins.

What a treat for Sy to share a panel and book signing with two greats — Tony Hiss (Rescuing the Planet) and Jack Davis (The Bald Eagle). Sy thanks to everyone at the Miami Book Fair.

Sy loves the lyrics and music by the gifted Britt Connors Music in this new song that was inspired by The Hummingbirds’ Gift and Robert Frost. Soon to be on her new album.

The Urda family bedecked this beautiful tree with scenes from Sy’s Becoming a Good Creature. Each December, Friends of the Townsend, Ma., library and senior center invites visitors to enjoy over 50 trees decorated with scenes and characters from favorite books.