Being a (human) creature is hard. Who among us has not looked at a dog, thought about how they have no idea Trump is president, and aspired to that specific embodiment of bliss? Sy Montgomery totally gets you! The naturalist, scriptwriter, explorer, and award-winning author opens her latest book with the story of how she aspired to be like the family dog as a young girl.

Montgomery never lost her child-like sense of wonder about the web of creatures in which we are embedded, and her facility in transmitting this will put you back in touch with yours. In a series of stories linked by a common theme, Montgomery introduces us to half a dozen different creatures she's had fascinating, emotional, sometimes near-mystical encounters with, and suggests we might take some cues on how to be thoughtful occupants & friendly co-habitants of the planet from our fellow critters in the animals kingdom.

As someone who works in a field that strives for ever-greater objectivity and quantitative, fact-based methods, I enjoyed this book's reminder that it is important to approach the world not just with our minds, but with our hearts. While adult readers might wish for something meatier (all the glimpses into her life in the field were my favorite, but all left me wanting more), and her assertions can occasionally bleed over into feeling simplistic, animal-lovers and readers of all ages are likely to be captivated by the stories and fabulous illustrations in this short, heartfelt book.

This book will make you laugh and cry, it's heatwarming and make you want to pet your cat/dog.
I'm so happy I got this ARC because it was such a good read.
Strongly recommended!
Many thanks to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Netgalley for this ARC

Montgomery's memoir honoring some of the creatures that have shaped her adventures and life, is truely beautiful. It is a heartwarming collection that will make you smile and laugh and cry. I've always found that the wee beasties whose lives become entwined in ours, haunt our memories just as much as humans. That's how we know they are special - they leave a mark.

Recommended for animal lovers.

#HowToBeAgoodCreature #NetGalley

A beautiful and colorful book. The animosity and personality given to each animal are fantastic. Sy shares her experiences of world travel by bringing us to live thirteen amazing animals. This is a very good gift for Christmas.

“I am blessed with a multispecies family,” Sy Montgomery writes in How to Be a Good Creature, her memoir of life as an animal lover: “a family made not from genes, not from blood, but from love.” Following her surprise 2015 bestseller The Soul of an Octopus, a finalist for the National Book Award, she delves into her past, examining it through thirteen animals that became her dearest friends, taught her to overcome her fears, and helped her to develop zest for life.

First came Molly, the Scottish terrier who was like a sister to Montgomery while she was growing up in Brooklyn. Scotties are stubborn and difficult to train; so was this headstrong little girl who, as a toddler on her first trip to the zoo, headed straight for the hippo enclosure. There have been other important dogs in her life since then, especially Tess the border collie. But none matched the charisma of Christopher Hogwood, the subject of Montgomery’s breakthrough book, The Good Good Pig (2007).

The trouble with loving animals is that they generally have a much shorter lifespan than humans do, and the deaths of her dear friends has sometimes plunged Montgomery into depression. However, her scientific fieldwork—whether with aquarium octopi, tree kangaroos in the Papua New Guinea cloud forest, or emus in the Australian outback—has consoled her again and again, reminding her of “the wildness that keeps us sane and whole, the wild, delicious hunger for life.”

This is a slender volume, and certain of its chapters feel insubstantial, but with its pull quotes, photographs, and whimsical illustrations by Rebecca Green, it would make an attractive gift book for any animal lover.

What a treat. Having only previously listened to a part of The Soul of an Octopus’ audio before my library loan expired, I knew what Montgomery was about: Animals. Unique experiences. Love.

This book made especially for young readers is wonderful. It chronicles the animals that taught Montgomery throughout her interesting life. Although there are a few of man’s best friend (dogs) count also emus, a tarantula, a pig, an octopus, and a weasel among others. With life lessons, gorgeous illustrations and a note of sadness (if you’ve recently lost a pet bring Kleenex) Montgomery shows how animals can teach us valuable lessons even when you least expect it.

Super sweet memoir about certain individual animals and the effect they've had on the author's life. Domestic, captive, and wild; everyday (dogs, pigs) and exotic (emu, tree kangaroos). If you're the kind of person who has had a special animal in your life, it's not a matter of if you should read this book but how much you'll cry reading it.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2460207816

If you are a lover of animals, if you believe the natural world and all its splendors are essential to human happiness, you must read Sy Montgomery. The author of many books about animals, from dogs, to Amazon River dolphins, to octopuses to pigs, Montgomery shares her affinity for these creatures in her memoir. To read her books is to be humbled, to see that humans are but a small part of this planet. From the Scottish terrier she owned as a child, to her work with emus to Australia and a sickly little pig in New Hampshire, Montgomery will have you laughing through your tears with this beautiful book. Hands down my favorite nonfiction read this year (I do wish it was longer), and my dream author to visit my elementary school.