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

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.”

“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.

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.

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 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.

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.

“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.

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…

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.

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Kate Missett, a columnist for the Wyoming 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.

Bestseller. The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2019, guest edited by Sy, hit three regional indie bestseller lists its first week out this year: Pacific Northwest, Southern California, and the South.

Good Reviews all around:

• Booklist has given The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2019, guest edited by Sy, a starred review in their October 1 issue, saying: “The works in this annual anthology are lyrical, emotional, moving, and insightful—proof that long-form science journalism boasts some of our best writers …. These pieces challenge us to look deeper and to understand better, to see the beating human heart in the soul of science.”
• The Washington Post praises The Magnificent Migration written for older children by the peerless wildlife writer Sy Montgomery.”
• 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?

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.

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.

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.

How to be a 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.