Montgomery, Sy 1958-

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Montgomery, Sy 1958-

Personal

Born February 7, 1958, in Frankfurt, Germany; daughter of Austin James (a U.S. Army general) and Willa

Zane Montgomery; married Howard Mansfield (a writer), September, 1987. Education: Syracuse University, dual B.A.s (French and psychology; magazine journalism), 1979. Politics: "Town meeting." Religion: Christian.

Addresses

Home—Box 127, Hancock, NH 03449. Agent—Sarah Jane Freymann, 59 W. 71st St., No. 9B, New York, NY 10023. E-mail—[email protected].

Career

Freelance journalist. Center for Tropical Ecology & Conservation, Antioch New England Graduate School, Keene, NH, associate. Lecturer on conservation topics at Smithsonian Institution, American Museum of Natural History, California Academy of Sciences, and other schools, universities, and conservation organizations.

Member

Society of Women Geographers, New England Environmental Educators.

Awards, Honors

Ray Bruner science writing fellow, American Public Health Association, 1982; Best New Nonfiction designation, New England Writers and Publishers Project, and finalist, Los Angeles Times science book award, both 1991, both for Walking with the Great Apes; Chris Award for Best Science Documentary, Columbus Film Festival, 1998, for Mother Bear Man; Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books Blue Ribbon Prize, 1999, International Reading Association Award for Excellence in Children's Books on Science, 2000, Orbis Pictus Honor Book designation, National Council of Teachers of English, 2000, John Burrough Nature Books for Young Readers listee, and Texas Bluebonnet Award nominee, Texas Library Association, all for The SnakeScientist; Thomas Cook Travel Book Award nomination, 2001, for Journey of the Pink Dolphins; Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Award, 2002, for The Man-eating Tigers of Sundarbans; Robert F. Silbert Informational Book Award Honor Book designation, 2005, for The Tarantula Scientist; Orbis Pictus Award, ALA Henry Bergh Children's Book Award, American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Sibert Honor Book, John Burroughs Young-Reader honor book, and Green Earth Honor Book, all 2007, all for Quest for the Tree Kangaroo.

Writings

NONFICTION FOR CHILDREN

The Snake Scientist ("Scientists in the Field" series), photographs by Nic Bishop, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1999.

The Man-eating Tigers of Sundarbans, photographs by Eleanor Briggs, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2001.

Encantado: Pink Dolphin of the Amazon, photographs by Dianne Taylor-Snow, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2002.

Search for the Golden Moon Bear: Science and Adventure in the Asian Tropics ("Scientists in the Field" series), Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2004.

The Tarantula Scientist ("Scientists in the Field" series), photographs by Nic Bishop, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2004.

Quest for the Tree Kangaroo: An Expedition to the Cloud Forest of New Guinea ("Scientists in the Field" series), photographs by Nic Bishop, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2006.

Saving the Ghost of the Mountain ("Scientists in the Field" series), photographs by Nic Bishop, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2008.

NONFICTION FOR ADULTS

Walking with the Great Apes: Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, Birute Galdikas, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1991.

Nature's Everyday Mysteries: A Field Guide to the World in Your Backyard (essays), foreword by Roger Tory Peterson, illustrated by Rodica Prato, Chapters (Shelburne, VT), 1993, also published as The Curious Naturalist: Nature's Everyday Mysteries, Down East Books (Camden, ME), 2000.

Spell of the Tiger: The Man-eaters of Sundarbans, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1995.

Seasons of the Wild: A Year of Nature's Magic and Mysteries (essays), foreword by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, illustrated by Rodica Prato, Chapters (Shelburne, VT), 1995.

Journey of the Pink Dolphins: An Amazon Quest, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2000.

Search for the Golden Moon Bear: Science and Adventure in Pursuit of a New Species, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2002.

The Wild out Your Window: Exploring Nature Near at Hand (essays), Down East Books (Camden, ME), 2002.

The Good Good Pig: The Extraordinary Life of Christopher Hogwood, Ballantine (New York, NY), 2006.

Contributor of essays and reviews to journals, including International Wildlife, Discover, GEO, Nature, Animals, Orion, and Ranger Rick, and to reference books such as Encyclopedia Britannica. Contributor to The Nature of Nature: New Essays by America's Finest Writers on Nature, Harcourt Brace, 1994. Author of monthly column "Nature's Journal" for Boston Globe. Contributor of radio commentaries to National Public Radio's Living on Earth program, and of documentary films to National Geographic Explorer television programs, including Spell of the Tiger, 1996, and Mother Bear Man, 1999.

Adaptations

A sound recording of The Snake Scientist was produced by Magnetix Corporation, 2000.

Sidelights

Writer, naturalist, and filmmaker Sy Montgomery swam with the pink dolphins of the Amazon, traveled through the mountain forests of New Guinea to catch sight of elusive tree kangaroos, and trailed man-eating tigers in the swamps of India. She shares these adventures with readers through such books as Spell of the Tiger: The Man-eaters of Sundarbans, Quest for the Tree Kangaroo: An Expedition to the Cloud Forest of New Guinea, Journey of the Pink Dolphins: An Amazon Quest, and Search for the Golden Moon Bear: Science and Adventure in Pursuit of a New Species. "To research my books and articles, I have been chased by an angry silverback gorilla in Zaire and bitten by a vampire bat in Costa Rica," the naturalist once revealed. "I have spent a week working in a pit with 18,000 snakes in Manitoba. I have been deftly undressed by an orangutan in Borneo, hunted by a tiger in India, and swum with piranhas, eels, and dolphins in the Amazon."

As companions to her books for adults, Montgomery has created junior versions of her adventure chronicles that are geared for younger readers. "I write for both adults and children in order to help us remember our duty to the earth," she once explained. "Children are a particularly important audience for they have an intuitive connection with plants and animals I hope to help honor and foster in my work. If our kind is to avert the poisonings and extinctions now in progress, today's children will do it."

In both Spell of the Tiger and its junior companion, The Man-Eating Tigers of Sundarbans, Montgomery transports readers to the Bay of Bengal, home to the world's largest mangrove swamp, and to the only population of tigers that seeks out human beings as prey rather than shying away from mankind, as most tigers do. "I avoided being eaten by my study subjects," she wryly reported, "while living in a mud hut among the most deadly man-eaters in the world." The people of the

Sundarbans worship the tiger as a god even as hundreds of them are hunted and killed annually by the creatures they call Daksin Ray. In addition to her books, Montgomery wrote and narrated a documentary film based on her work with the tigers for a National Geographic Explorer program that aired in 1996 to a worldwide audience.

"Montgomery writes lyrically of an alien land where outlines blur, tree roots reach for the sky, cyclones claim whole villages, and chanted mantras keep tigers from becoming angry," observed a Kirkus Reviews contributor of Spell of the Tiger. In Publishers Weekly, a contributor similarly focused on the author's ability to create a "vivid picture of the coastal forest and its people," and Booklist reviewer Donna Seaman wrote that Montgomery appears to "absorb the unique and surprisingly cosmic dynamic of the delta" as she pursues her elusive subject. "After all," Seaman noted, "there can be no revelation more humbling than the recognition that we, like other animals, are meat." Reviewing The Man-Eating Tigers of Sundarbans for Booklist, Ilene Cooper wrote that the work has "clearly been written with young people in mind." Detailing tiger behavior from the viewpoint of both scientists and villagers, the work "immediately captures attention with fresh, engaging writing that turns a scientific study into a page-turning mystery," concluded the critic.

"Journey of the Pink Dolphins is the true story of my quest to follow an enigmatic, little-studied species of freshwater dolphin into the heart of the Amazon," Montgomery once explained. "My research required four separate expeditions, each a journey not only into some of the world's greatest jungles, but also a trip back into time, and a foray into a mythical, enchanted world where people say the dolphins can turn into people and seduce both men and women to live with them in a beautiful city beneath the water." In both Journey of the Pink Dolphins and the child-focused Encantado: Pink Dolphins of the Amazon, she introduces the world of the freshwater dolphins called Encantados, or "Enchanted," by the people of the Amazon and Orinoco rivers in South America. In Encantado, which features photographs by Dianne Taylor-Snow, Montgomery "writes with a contagious sense of wonder," according to a Kirkus Reviews writer.

Search for the Golden Moon Bear: Science and Adventure in Pursuit of a New Species finds Montgomery traveling with Gary Galbreath, an evolutionary biologist hoping to find a yet-undiscovered species of honey-colored bear reportedly seen in China and known as the golden moon bear. Traveling through Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand, Montgomery is a witness to the horrors of the black market for wildlife, the effects of the Khmer Rouge's terrorism, and the destruction of the traditional way of life of the region's hill tribes. Despite its tragedy, according to Seaman, Montgomery's "riveting chronicle" is nonetheless uplifting as it tells of "heroic wildlife specialists" and "bear lore sacred and scientific," in a prose containing both "humor … and a subtle but pervasive spirituality." "Making science exciting is Montgomery's talent, and she is in top form here," wrote Library Journal contributor Nancy Moeckel of the book. As a Publishers Weekly contributor predicted, "Readers who aren't conservationists to begin with will be by the end of this heady and haunting narrative."

Montgomery's adventures while on her search for the mythic species are recounted for younger readers in Search for the Golden Moon Bear: Science and Adventure in the Asian Tropics. "Though discussions of the region's bloody history have been toned down" in this volume, according to Booklist critic Jennifer Mattson the author nonetheless "frame[s] the adventure with thought-provoking context." In Search for the Golden Moon Bear Montgomery presents young readers with what School Library Journal contributor Patricia Manning called "an intelligent reportage of science as it happens … and lets readers see that the ‘end’ of an investigation holds within itself the nucleus of a new idea."

Award-winning wildlife photographer Nic Bishop and Montgomery team up on Quest for the Tree Kangaroo, part of her ongoing "Scientists in the Field" series. Here she accompanies biologist Lisa Dabek and her international research team on a trip to the dense mountain forests of Papua New Guinea in search of the Matschie's tree kangaroo. Fitting the animals with radio collars, the biologists hope to learn more about the unique animals and their interaction with their lush environment. The text presents what Booklist reviewer Gillian Engberg described as an "unusually strong, visceral sense of the work and cooperation fieldwork entails," while in Audubon Julie Liebach wrote that Bishop's colorful photographic images make "the forests of Papua New Guinea look like a Tolkien fantasy." Focusing on "both the hardships and exhilaration of the enterprise," according to School Library Journal critic Kathy Piehl, Montgomery provides "fascinating glimpses" into nature that "should encourage young scientists." Quest for the Tree Kangaroo features an "exemplary description of science field work," concluded a Kirkus Reviews writer, the critic adding that the author "connects the world of the young reader" to her book's exotic setting through her well-paced narrative and references to the ways children are aiding the biologists' efforts. "Montgomery's friendliness and curiosity set the tone," asserted Horn Book contributor Danielle J. Ford, the critic explaining that the author "enthusiastically engages with the people, plants, and animals she encounters" throughout her fascinating journey.

The Snake Scientist and The Tarantula Scientist are specifically geared for a younger readership. The strength of Montgomery's approach in these books is that they exhibit "the excitement of science in action," according to Ruth S. Vose in her School Library Journal review of The Snake Scientist. Montgomery's profile of snake scientists centers on a zoologist who studies the red-sided garter snake in Canada, while the book's sidebars include information about aspects of the species that continue to mystify scientists and hints on how to visit snake dens. The book's "lively text" makes this an "outstanding" science book for young people, Vose averred. Featuring photographs by Bishop, The Tarantula Scientist transports readers to the rainforest of French Guiana, where Hiram College teacher and biologist Samuel Marshall collects the spiders he and his students will study in their Ohio laboratory. The tarantula species includes the largest spider on earth: the bird-eating Goliath tarantula. Praised by a Kirkus Reviews writer as "another [of Montgomery's] stellar excursion into the world of working scientists," the book contains numerous facts about spider biology and habits. "Montgomery has a gift for scene-setting," the Kirkus Reviews critic added, while in School Library Journal Patricia Manning deemed the work "a vivid look at an enthusiastic scientist energetically and happily at work."

Somewhat of a departure from much of her writing, The Good Good Pig: The Extraordinary Life of Christopher Hogwood shares with readers a journey of a different sort. Montgomery's book is set in a small town in rural New Hampshire, where Montgomery lives with her husband, writer Howard Mansfield. Given a sickly piglet that, as the runt of the litter, seemed unlikely to survive, the couple cared for the creature and nursed it to good health. Soon a part of the family, Christopher Hogwood eventually topped 750 pounds, and not only Montgomery and her husband, but also the entire community became dedicated to keeping the lovable pig fed. Due to his sociable nature, Christopher became a local celebrity, and through his presence not only the author but also many of his acquaintances benefited from his well-grounded perspective on life. At age fourteen, Christopher finally passes away, leaving a great void in many lives but also a legacy comprised of valuable life lessons, as Montgomery reveals in her loving tribute.

A national bestseller, The Good Good Pig also touched the hearts of readers around the world in its Portuguese, Dutch, German, Korean, and Japanese translation. In her memoir, Montgomery "writes with extraordinary lucidity, candor, and grace," noted Seaman, while School Library Journal reviewer Claudia C. Holland predicted that the author's "engaging writing style will captivate even the most uninspired teen readers." In Library Jour-nal Wilda Williams commented that Montgomery studs her memoir with "fascinating tidbits of pig lore and natural history," and Holland noted that in The Good Good Pig she includes "delightful anecdotes about Christopher's personality, neighborhood wanderings, and haute skin care à la Pig Spa."

While she focuses on exotic adventures in many of her books, in her essays for the Boston Globe column "Nature's Journal" as well as her radio talks on NPR's Living on Earth program, Montgomery also inspires fascination with the typical suburban backyard. Her essay collection Nature's Everyday Mysteries: A Field Guide to the World in Your Backyard reveals many little-known facts about the natural world all around us, while the forty-nine essays in The Wild out Your Window: Exploring Nature Near at Hand are rife with "sex, violence, intrigue, and mystery," according to Library Journal writer Maureen J. Delaney-Lehman. Recommending Nature's Everyday Mysteries to "readers who know little about the natural world," Booklist reviewer Jon Kartman added that Montgomery's writing "will entertain and inform in equal proportions," and Delaney-Lehman dubbed her writings "delightful." Other essays by Montgomery are collected in Seasons of the Wild: A Year of Nature's Magic and Mysteries.

Discussing her ongoing adventures with SATA, Montgomery noted that research for the 2008 installment in her "Scientists in the Field" series with Bishop found her in the Altai Mountains of the Great Gobi in Mongolia, searching for snow leopards. "Saving the Ghost of the Mountain chronicles our expedition with Tom McCarthy and his colleagues at the Snow Leopard Trust to search for sign of the most elusive cat on Earth. It will feature gorgeous photos by Nic Bishop. And here, once again, Nic saved me from death, this time keeping me from falling off a cliff at 11,000 feet onto a rocky substrate of what looked like God's own Ginsu knives stuck blade-side-up in drying concrete.

"Besides once again failing to be killed, for me other highlights of the Gobi research included riding on Tom's

[Image not available for copyright reasons]

own personal camel, eating fresh yak butter with a nomad family in their traditional round felt tent, playing with an adorable wild sweet desert hedgehog, and sharing vodka made from goat's milk at a traditional Mongolian wedding.

"Work in progress includes a book on birds for adults, for which research will include a study of falconry and a trip to Australia to study the world's most dangerous bird, the cassowary. A new book for children will take Nic and me to New Zealand to document the nesting of the critically endangered kakapo, a giant, flightless, nocturnal parrot."

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Audubon, Julie Leibach, review of Quest for the Tree Kangaroo: An Expedition to the Cloud Forest of New Guinea, p. 133.

Booklist, March 15, 1991, Sally Estes, review of Walking with the Great Apes, p. 1441; April 1, 1993, Jon Kartman, review of Nature's Everyday Mysteries, January 15, 1995, Donna Seaman, review of Spell of the Tiger, p. 878; February 15, 1999, Stephanie Zvirin, review of The Snake Scientist, p. 1064; February 15, 2000, Donna Seaman, review of Journey of the Pink Dolphins: An Amazon Quest, p. 1064; March 1, 2001, Ilene Cooper, review of The Man-eating Tigers of Sundarbans, p. 1277; September 15, 2002, Donna Seaman, review of Search for the Golden Moon Bear: Science and Adventure in Pursuit of a New Species, p. 187; December 1, 2004, Jennifer Mattson, review of Search for the Golden Moon Bear, p. 665; March 15, 2006, Donna Seaman, review of The Good Good Pig: The Extraordinary Life of Christopher Hogwood, p. 12; December 1, 2006, Gillian Engberg, review of Quest for the Tree Kangaroo, p. 58.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, November, 2006, Deborah Stevenson, review of Quest for the Tree Kangaroo, p. 138.

Choice, March, 2001, A. Ewert, review of The Curious Naturalist: Nature's Everyday Mysteries, p. 1295; February, 2003, F.S. Szalay, review of Search for the Golden Moon Bear, p. 1009

Horn Book, July, 1999, Diana Lutz, review of The Snake Scientist, p. 485; March, 2001, review of The Man-Eating Tigers of Sundarbans, p. 232; July-August, 2004, Danielle J. Ford, review of The Tarantula Scientist, p. 469; January-February, 2007, Danielle J. Ford, review of Quest for the Tree Kangaroo, p. 85.

Kirkus Reviews, December 1, 1994, review of Spell of the Tiger, p. 1596; March 15, 2002, review of Encantado: Pink Dolphin of the Amazon; August 15, 2002, review of Search for the Golden Moon Bear, p. 1202; February 15, 2004, review of The Tarantula Scientist, p. 182; February 15, 2006, review of The Good Good Pig, p. 173; October 1, 2006, review of Quest for the Tree Kangaroo, p. 1020.

Library Journal, February 15, 2000, Nancy J. Moeckel, review of Journey of the Pink Dolphins, p. 193; October 15, 2002, Nancy J. Moeckel, review of Search for the Golden Moon Bear: Science and Adventure in Pursuit of a New Species, and Maureen J. Delaney-Lehman, review of The Wild out Your Window: Nature Near at Hand, both p. 92; May 15, 2006, Wilda Williams, review of The Good Good Pig, p. 121.

Publishers Weekly, January 11, 1991, review of Walking with the Great Apes, p. 85; January 9, 1995, review of Spell of the Tiger, p. 53; February 21, 2000, review of Journey of the Pink Dolphins, p. 79; August 19, 2002, review of Search for the Golden Moon Bear, p. 77; February 6, 2006, review of The Good Good Pig, p. 51.

School Library Journal, May, 1999, Ruth S. Vose, review of The Snake Scientist, p. 140; March, 2001, Margaret Bush, review of The Man-eating Tigers of Sundarbans, p. 274; May, 2004, Patricia Manning, review of The Tarantula Scientist, p. 172; December, 2004, Patricia Manning, review of Search for the Golden Moon Bear, p. 164; December, 2006, Kathy Piehl, review of Quest for the Tree Kangaroo, p. 166, and Claudia C. Holland, review of The Good Good Pig, p. 178.