First published 2018
Sy Montgomery examines thirteen animals who shaped her understanding of interspecies connection. The author and naturalist draws from decades of fieldwork studying creatures from tarantulas to tigers across the globe. Montgomery reveals how each animal taught her different lessons about empathy, family, and resilience. She describes the unique personalities she discovered in species most people consider alien or threatening. The memoir moves through encounters that challenged her assumptions about intelligence, emotion, and communication beyond human boundaries. Montgomery connects these relationships to larger questions about love, loss, and finding purpose. Through Rebecca Green's illustrations, readers meet the individual animals who became Montgomery's teachers and friends. The book shows how crossing species barriers can reshape how we see ourselves and our place in the natural world.
Genres: nature, animals, autobiography, biography-memoir
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family
200 pages · Hardcover · Houghton Mifflin Harcourt