Join us in the Steinberg Room on Thursday, May 21st for a talk by author Nancy F. Castaldo on her book Squirrel: How a Backyard Forager Shapes Our World. Copies of the book will be available for purchase at the program through Inquiring Minds Bookstore. Register to get an email reminder the day before the program. Registration is optional. 

Award-winning nonfiction author, Nancy Castaldo hails from the Hudson Valley and has written books about our planet for over 20 years. Her books have earned many awards and accolades including the Green Earth Book Award, Crystal Kite Award, NSTA Best STEM Book, Eureka Silver Honors and been chosen as Junior Library Guild Selections.  Most recently she received the John Burroughs Association’s Riverby Award for two recent books.   

Nancy loves sharing her research that has taken her all over the world from the Galapagos to Russia to Italy. Her squirrel adventures are no exception!

Learn more about Nancy at https://nancycastaldo.com/

"In Squirrel, Nancy Castaldo shines new light on this familiar backyard mammal, exploring their staggering diversity (they’re found on all continents but Antarctica) and the many surprising ways they shape our world, our communities, and our cultures. Each chapter explores an aspect of squirrels and their close and sometimes fraught association with humans: their importance to myriad ecosystems through sophisticated food-caching strategies; their introduction to nineteenth-century urban parks as adorable ambassadors for nature; their complicated global status as both invasive and endangered; their role as celebrated cultural icons and social media memes; and ultimately, why we must prevent population declines and protect their well-being while we can. Like other wildlife species, squirrels are increasingly stressed by climate change, and their speculative fate may foreshadow our own. The book includes a detailed bibliography, an exhaustive list of squirrel species and their status, and tips for coexisting peaceably with squirrels in our yards and neighborhoods. Chapters are introduced by exquisitely drawn historical illustrations."