Let’s hear it for Sy Montgomery. When I first listened to her spellbinding tales, I was attending a librarian’s conference in a large Manchester hotel, one in the act of renovation.  Our luncheon was served within two walls and two canvas-sheeted boundaries, hardly appetizing.

Then this wild-haired woman stood up and started gesticulating and speaking excitedly about tracking snow leopards and man-eating tigers of Sundarbans, riding pink dolphins of the Irrawaddy River, and stalking the cassowary – do you know how rare those sightings are?! – and tracking the whereabouts of one Christopher Hogwood, neighborhood star of The Good Good Pig. I was taken in completely.

Now, this “part Emily Dickinson, part Indiana Jones,” as the Boston Globe called her, will be speaking at the Bachelder Library on Wednesday, May 20, at 7 PM about her new book, The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness.

I am not an octopus fan, never have been, but I’ll be in the front row, ready to be enlightened, informed, and entertained. Question is: Where will  you be?

If you are going to attend one weeknight event this spring, choose Sy. The last time I saw her speak was at Gibson’s in Concord, when she thrilled the audience, standing room only, with her adventures among the avian creatures. And here you can see her in Andover. Be there, or be square!