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.