How to Be a Good Creature Read online

  Life on a Little-Known Planet by Howard Ensign Evans. The author, a Harvard entomologist, dedicated this riveting book on insect life to the book lice and silverfish that inhabited his study with him. Even though many new discoveries about insects have been reported since this book was published in 1968 (my copy, purchased as a used paperback, cost $2.45 when it was printed!), when I re-read it today, the book seems more prescient than outdated in its appreciation for the complexity of these tiny beings.

  FOR ADULTS:

  Walking with the Great Apes

  Spell of the Tiger

  The Curious Naturalist

  The Wild Out Your Window

  Journey of the Pink Dolphins

  Search for the Golden Moon Bear

  The Good Good Pig

  Birdology

  The Soul of an Octopus

  Tamed and Untamed (coauthored with

  Elizabeth Marshall Thomas)

  FOR CHILDREN:

  The Snake Scientist

  The Man-Eating Tigers of Sundarbans

  Encantado

  Search for the Golden Moon Bear: Science and

  Adventure in the Asian Tropics

  The Tarantula Scientist

  Quest for the Tree Kangaroo

  Saving the Ghost of the Mountain

  Kakapo Rescue

  The Tapir Scientist

  Chasing Cheetahs

  Snowball the Dancing Cockatoo

  The Octopus Scientists

  The Great White Shark Scientist

  Amazon Adventure

  The Hyena Scientist

  This book began in our living room in Hancock, New Hampshire, while I was sitting on our couch talking with a friend.

  I hadn’t seen Vicki Croke in too long, and I missed her. So I was glad when, one winter day, Vicki, a busy, nationally best-selling author who also reports on animal issues for Boston’s NPR news station, broke the dry spell and drove up from the city with her producer and partner, Christen Goguen, for a visit.

  We walked in the New Hampshire woods with our border collie, Sally. We scanned the snow for the tracks of squirrels and deer and wild turkeys. We stroked the feathers and kissed the combs of my flock of hens, the Ladies. And though it was the original reason for the visit, by the time we sat down so Vicki could conduct her interview, it felt almost incidental.

  Once back indoors, with Christen behind the camera, Vicki and I spoke of tigers, tarantulas, tapirs, and all sorts of other animals about whom I’ve been lucky enough to spend a career learning and writing. The interview was nearly over when Vicki asked me: “Do you feel as though you’ve learned, not just about an animal’s natural history, but lessons about life for yourself?”

  What have animals taught me about my life? I hadn’t been asked this before. But I answered Vicki almost immediately.

  “How to be a good creature.”

  My interview with Vicki was archived online. One day, months later, the VP and Associate Publisher of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Young Readers, Mary Wilcox, happened to watch it. She shared it with the editor with whom I often collaborate, Kate O’Sullivan. My last answer spoke to her. “This is the book you should write next,” Kate told me.

  You hold in your hands that book.

  While this book is about the animals who taught me how to be a good creature, I owe a deep debt to humans, too. Besides Vicki and Kate and Mary, I’d like to thank some of them here.

  First to thank are my mother and father. Although we had many disagreements, I always loved them. I know that in their own way, they loved me, too. I wouldn’t trade my parents for any others. Without them, I would have been someone else, someone perhaps not as determined.

  I thank the humans who lived the life described in this book with me. Many of these folks are named in these pages. A few who are not deserve special mention: Pearl Yusuf, Ann Wolicki, Carolyn Beyreau, Selinda Chiquoine, Gary Galbreath, and Joel Glick. Special thanks to Gretchen Vogel and Pat Winks for helping me access memories of Molly. I’m grateful to a number of folks for kindly reading and helpfully commenting on the manuscript. Among these are Jerry and Colette Price, Judith Oksner, Amy Kunze, and Rob Matz. Thank you! My thanks are also due to another person who, alas, could not read this book. But as I wrote, I imagined Anna Magill-Dohan as my ideal reader. Her intelligence, curiosity, and quirky humor continue to illuminate my view of the world.

  I am additionally grateful for the help of my wonderful literary agent, Sarah Jane Freymann; for the compelling and sensitive illustrations in this book by Rebecca Green; and for the book’s gorgeous design by Cara Llewellyn.

  No human is more important to me than my husband, Howard Mansfield. He is the best writer I have ever known.

  Yet, despite a writer’s need for calm and routine, he has patiently cared for all our animals and coped with many critter emergencies during my lengthy foreign field expeditions. To his eternal credit, Howard was responsible for adopting both Christopher and Tess. And though it sometimes took some persuasion on my part, I am endlessly grateful that he welcomed Sally, Thurber, and the rest of our animal family to bless our lives.

  Finally, I want to thank some more animals: my first parakeet, Jerry; ferrets Sasquatch, Scooter, Vasco da Gama, The Age of Reason, her daughter (of course) The Enlightenment, Mr. Roberts, and Nebraska; our cat, Mica; and our cockatiel, Kokopelli. Though not covered here, they deeply enriched my life and their love lives on in every page I write.

  About the Author

  Researching films, articles, and over twenty books, National Book Award finalist Sy Montgomery has also been honored with a Sibert Medal, two Science Book and Film Prizes from the National Association for the Advancement of Science, three honoroy degrees, and many other awards. She lives in Hancock, New Hampshire, with her husband, Howard Mansfield, their border collie, Thurber, and seven black hens.

  Visit her online

  at symontgomery.com

  on Instagram @sytheauthor

  and on Twitter @SyTheAuthor

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