The Concord Public Library and the Concord Public Library Foundation have chosen this year’s Concord Reads title: “Of Time and Turtles: Mending the World Shell by Shattered Shell,” written by celebrated author Sy Montgomery and illustrated by Matt Patterson. For Children, the Concord Reads book is “The True and Lucky Life of a Turtle,” also by Montgomery and Patterson.
Throughout March and April, Concord Reads will host activities for both adults and children that connect to the reading. The culminating event is a presentation by Montgomery and Patterson on Thursday, April 23rd at 6 p.m. at the Bank of New Hampshire Stage.
Visit the Concord Public Library’s website for a full list of events.
And, in the meantime, learn more about New Hampshire author Sy Montgomery, who lives in Hancock with her husband and fellow writer, Howard Mansfield, and their border collie, Thurber.
Montgomery has written nearly four dozen books and worked on numerous articles and films.
She has been chased by an angry silverback gorilla in Rwanda and hunted by a tiger in India. She has swum with piranhas, electric eels and pink dolphins in the Amazon. Her work has taken her from the cloud forest of Papua New Guinea (for a book on tree kangaroos) to the Altai Mountains of the Gobi (for another on snow leopards.) For “The Soul of an Octopus” (a National Book Award finalist) she befriended octopuses at the New England aquarium and scuba dived and snorkeled with wild octopuses in Mexico and French Polynesia. Next she drew on her scuba skills to cage dive with great white sharks and swim freely with giant oceanic manta rays.
While working on her most recent national bestseller for adults, “Of Time and Turtles,” she befriended a 42-pound wild snapping turtle named Fire Chief, who showed his extraordinary trust by allowing her to feed him by hand.
Around Concord Magazine caught up with Montgomery ahead of her Concord visit to learn more about her scientific and writing endeavors.
Around Concord: Tell us a little about yourself and how you got into writing such striking books about the natural world.
Sy Montgomery: I always loved animals — most children do — and at first felt I should serve them by becoming a veterinarian. But then I learned to read. My father would help me read The New York Times, picking out stories about animals. I was born in 1958, so when I began to read, in the 1960s, what stories about animals were consistently in The Times, and all other newspapers that were paying attention? How they were going extinct. Whales, elephants, eagles — all them endangered, because of human hunting, pollution, and overpopulation. I knew nobody who didn’t LOVE whales, elephants and eagles. And yet we were driving them to the doom that felled the dinosaurs!
I realized, as a child, that I might help more animals by spreading the world about these magnificent creatures, and others, to move my fellow humans save them instead of extinguish them. I wanted to do what I am now doing since about age seven.
AC: When it comes to “Of Time and Turtles,” what do you hope people will take away from the book?
SM: To realize that these animals — all animals — think, feel and know. I hope, by meeting the individual turtles in this book, that readers experience a renewed respect for these common and underestimated creatures, and therefore a conviction to preserve their habitat and help them survive. Roads are absolutely deadly for all wildlife, but especially for turtles. Let’s help them get across! How? Not only stopping to move them (I explain safe ways to move a snapper) — but realizing each new road we build is death for wildlife — unless we install over- and underpasses.
I also really hope to quell the monster myth about snapping turtles. They NEVER bite people in water, and only bite on land in self-defense. They are mainly scavengers that keep waterways clean. They are the heroes of their ecosystem. We should celebrate them!
AC: What was a meaningful experience you had during the process of writing the book?
SM: One would be experiencing Fire Chief’s trust. Having a wild, ancient, 42-pound snapping turtle welcome my touch — and my being able to perceive that he was OK with this and that I would not be bitten — was something I would never have expected when I first envisioned this book!
Another would be the resurrection of Monet — one of four hatchling painted turtles I was entrusted to Head Start, raising them, with a permit from the state, over the winter for release in the spring when they’d be a big larger than they’d otherwise be, and therefore less likely to be eaten. One morning I found Monet had drowned in his tank! But I performed turtle CPR for 45 minutes! He came back to life — and was released with the others (Manet, Bonnard and Suerat) in the spring.
AC: What are some challenges you have to overcome in your work?
SM: In researching the turtle book, nothing death-defying: Just leeches, ticks and a single bite from a turtle — a red ear, not a snapper, but it was such a bad bite I had to have the Turtle Rescue League glue the skin on my finger back together. Working on other books I’ve faced other challenges. Twice I’ve had a gun held to my head. I caught dengue fever. A tiger swam after my boat. That kind of thing.
AC: Where do you find inspiration for your work?
SM: In all the creatures I meet and the people who study and work to preserve them.
AC: What does the natural world mean to you?
SM: The natural world, to me, is God’s hand made visible. I see the magnificence of the Creator in all His work. I live in a constant state of awe and wonder. Some people burst into song, others burst into tears, when confronted with such glory. I burst into sentences!
AC: What are you most excited for when it comes to Concord Reads?
SM: I am so thrilled that folks in Concord are all meeting my turtle friends through my work! I want to hear their turtle stories, too. And I am excited about introducing Matt Patterson, the wildlife artist with whom I volunteered at Turtle Rescue League, who really got me started on this whole thing.
AC: Anything else to share?
SM: Matt and I also created two books for children, illustrated with his amazing, lifelike art. “The Book of Turtles” wows both adults and kids with amazing turtle facts (There are species who can run faster than a 10-year-old! Some turtles climb trees!) and another just on our friend Fire Chief, the star of the adult book, called “The True and Lucky Life of a Turtle.”