Sy Montgomery
 “Part Indiana Jones, part Emily Dickinson,”
as the Boston Globe describes her,
Sy Montgomery is an author, naturalist, documentary
scriptwriter, and radio commentator
who has traveled to some of the world’s most
remote wildernesses for her work. She has
worked in a pit crawling with 18,000 snakes
in Manitoba, been hunted by a tiger in India,
swum with pink dolphins in the Amazon, and
been undressed by an orangutan in Borneo.
She is the author of 13 award-winning books,
including her national best-selling memoir, The
Good Good Pig. Montgomery lives in
Hancock, New Hampshire.
Sy's Upcoming Events
- Sy Montgomery at National Geographic Auditorium
National Geographic Auditorium, 1600 M Street Northwest, Washington DC April 17, 2010, 2:00 pmSy Montgomery will receive the ChildrenÂ’s Book Guild/Washington Post Book Nonfiction Award for her books for children on April 17th at 2 pm at the National Geographic Auditorium in Washington, DC. - Sy Montgomery at International Reading Associaton Annual Mtg
McCormick Place, Lakeside Center, 2301 S. Lakeshore Drive, Chicago IL April 27, 2010, 9:00 amSy Montgomery will speak on the Green Earth Panel at the International Reading Association's Annual Meeting in Chicago, IL from 9-11:45 a.m. on April 27th. Sy will also be signing books for IRA participants from 1-2 pm. For more information on the conference, see the link above.
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Sy's Books
 Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, Biruté GaldikasThree astounding women scientists have in recent years penetrated the jungles of Africa and Borneo to observe, nurture, and defend humanity’s closest cousins. Jane Goodall has worked with the chimpanzees of Gombe for nearly 50 years; Dian Fossey died in 1985 defending the mountain gorillas of Rwanda; and Biruté Galdikas lives in intimate proximity to the orangutans of Borneo. All three began their work as protégées of the great Anglo-African archeologist Louis Leakey, and each spent years in the field, allowing the apes to become their familiars—and ultimately waging battles to save them from extinction in the wild.  The Man-Eaters of SundarbansA book that earned Sy Montgomery her status as one of the most celebrated wildlife writers of our time, Spell of the Tiger brings readers to the Sundarbans, a vast tangle of mangrove swamp and tidal delta that lies between India and Bangladesh. It is the only spot on earth where tigers routinely eat people—swimming silently behind small boats at night to drag away fishermen, snatching honey collectors and woodcutters from the forest. But, unlike in other parts of Asia where tigers are rapidly being hunted to extinction, tigers in the Sundarbans are revered. With the skill of a naturalist and the spirit of a mystic, Montgomery reveals the delicate balance of Sundarbans life, explores the mix of worship and fear that offers tigers unique protection there, and unlocks some surprising answers about why people at risk of becoming prey might consider their predator a god.  An Amazon QuestWhen Sy Montgomery ventured into the Amazon to unlock the mysteries of the little-known
pink dolphins, she found ancient whales that plied the Amazon River at dawn and
dusk, swam through treetops in flooded forests, and performed underwater ballets with their
flexible bodies. But she soon found out that to know the botos, as the dolphins are locally
called, you must also know the people who live among them. And so in Journey of the Pink
Dolphins, Montgomery—part naturalist, part poet, part Indiana Jones—winds her way
through watery tributaries and riverside villages, searching for botos and hearing the tales of
locals who believe these ethereal dolphins are shape-shifters—creatures that emerge from the
water as splendidly dressed men or women only to enchant their human onlookers, capture
their souls, and then carry them away to the Encante, an underwater world. Montgomery
takes readers on four separate journeys, exploring the river-dwelling dolphins’ natural
history, chronicling their conservation pressures, unraveling their prehistoric roots, and
visiting with shamans who delve into the Encante.
 Science and Adventure in Pursuit of a New SpeciesSearch for the Golden Moon Bear recounts Montgomery’s quest—fraught with danger and mayhem—to reconstruct an evolutionary record and piece together a living portrait of her littleknown subject. This beautiful animal is not just a scientific eureka! It is also a powerful symbol of conservation. Search for the Golden Moon Bear is a field report from the frontiers of science and the ends of the earth, seamlessly weaving together folklore, natural history, and contemporary research into fantastic travelogue.
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