Island Bookstore, which operates three bookshops on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, has been sold by owner Bill Rickman to staff member Susan Sawin. 

Rickman purchased the original Island Bookstore, located in Scarborough Faire Shops in Duck, in 1996, eventually adding locations in Corolla and Kitty Hawk. Before moving to the Outer Banks, he had started his bookselling career at Kroch's & Brentano's, which at one point had 19 bookstores in and around Chicago. He worked his way from the mailroom to president and CEO. 

Bill Rickman and Susan Sawin

His decision to sell was first shared with publishers in April. "Due to aging and health reasons, it is time for me to pass the baton," Rickman observed. "Being a bookseller for the past 50-plus years has filled my life with joy, challenge, and inspiration. Thank you all for being part of my adventure."

He added that new owner Sawin "will be a wonderful addition to the bookselling community. She brings a wide range of knowledge as a school librarian and practicing attorney. She also comes with great enthusiasm, good bookstore experience and passion for building community."

In addition her work at Island Bookstore, Sawin is the librarian at First Flight High School in Kill Devil Hills. Her involvement with education and reading made the purchase an easy decision for her.

"I first came to Island Bookstore as a devoted (and frequent) customer," she said. "Bill has developed each of the three stores as vital components of the three coastal communities they serve. I hope I can continue to grow our presence and community contributions. Bill's are very big shoes to fill!"

She also noted that with "an increasing year round population, I think we have a lot of opportunities to offer events and programming that will enrich island life and bring our readers together."

Andrew Weber

Andrew Weber, Macmillan's global COO, will leave Macmillan at the end of May to take a position with another company, Macmillan said. Holtzbrinck Publishing Group CEO Stefan von Holtzbrinck said Weber "has been a loyal partner to Macmillan and Holtzbrinck, with great collegiality, human warmth and an eye for talent, all of which will ensure his legacy at Macmillan Publishers as well as at Macmillan Learning." He joined Macmillan in 2013.

Susan Winslow, president of Macmillan Learning, added: "We are grateful for Andrew's many contributions to Macmillan over the past years. His support and good humor were especially important in a year marked by the impact of Covid-19."

Don Weisberg, CEO, Macmillan Publishers, commented: "Andrew's accomplishments during his tenure are many. Most notable and recent were his leadership of the multi-year project to find and move us into our new home at 120 Broadway, and his tireless and integral contributions to the company's response to Covid-19, which made our record year in 2020 possible. With a superb group of Shared Services leaders in place and the financial performance of our business robust, Andrew leaves us well positioned for the future."

The New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association and the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance will partner again this year for the second New Voices, New Rooms virtual Fall show, scheduled for September 27 to October 1. Last year, the organizations teamed up to host the first NVNR in response to Covid-19 concerns. 

NVNR 2021 will offer a week of opportunities for education, networking, innovation and fun under the official theme "Opening Doors." A fresh format includes two days of education and bookseller-to-bookseller networking and idea-sharing, plus three days of new title discovery and author panels, as well as the popular Rep Pick of the List and Editor Buzz panels. Each day will also feature interludes of poetry readings, creative play, wellness tips and more. 

NAIBA and SIBA will be working with publisher and vendor partners to enhance their studio (previously called "booth") offerings to promote bookseller and sales rep one-on-one meetings, creation of new accounts, and bookseller support of upcoming promotions. The NVNR conference site will also feature a bookseller-friendly galley room called "Readers of the Lost ARC"; Zoom access to all programming; and a dedicated Slack channel to message peers, set up appointments and stay in contact after the conference.

Also new to NVNR 2021 will be the VIndies. NVNR and "its 'academy' of judges drawn from the greats of our bookselling community" will award prizes for videos created in 2020 by independent bookstores in the SIBA and NAIBA territories. The award ceremony, which will include viewings of the finalist videos, will take place during the conference. A separate call for submissions for the VIndies will be released in the coming weeks. 

John Evans, co-owner of DIESEL, a bookstore in Brentwood and Del Mar, Calif., reported that things are gradually "normalizing" at the stores. A couple weeks ago, he and co-owner Alison Reid expanded occupancy at the Brentwood store from about four customers at a time to 10. 

When asked if he and Reid were still asking customers to wear masks, Evans remarked, "We're not asking--we're telling them." They've changed the store signage a bit, essentially reminding people to pull up their masks before entering the bookstore. He pointed out that there are children who come in who haven't been vaccinated yet, and "the staff is masked and wants to be masked." He recalled that just recently there was a customer who came in maskless, "celebrating her freedom" without recognizing that there are still adjustments that need to be made and other people to consider.

All told, 2020 was a "pretty brutal year" for the bookstore. What made the difference for Evans and Reid were the two PPP loans they received and the crowdfunding campaign the bookstore launched in September (so far that has raised just north $166,000). Reid said she's very grateful to the government for PPP, and she "would love to be grateful" to publishers for some kind of relief program that "isn't Binc."

The biggest hurdle going forward, Evans continued, will be catching up on back rent when the rent is already high. Depending on their relationships with their landlords, he noted, some bookstores may have a much more manageable time doing this than others. Their landlord in Del Mar is more understanding, but in Brentwood the rent "is about as high as you can imagine."

Another looming question is how to transition back to in-person events, which Evans, Reid and their team "talk about all the time." Encouraging people to come out and gather in groups "still doesn't feel right" at the moment, but by August or September they might be ready to try some outdoor events. He added that the bookstore's comfort level is only half of the equation, and it also depends on when authors feel comfortable standing in front of crowds again.

---

In Houston, Tex., Blue Willow Bookshop is still taking appointments, but store owner Valerie Koehler and her team are basically allowing everyone in, "as long as they are wearing a mask." The staff is fully vaccinated, so they consider themselves to be "in the bubble" when there aren't any customers in store.

What is most definitely not normal, Koehler continued, is the amount of shipping the store is still doing. The number of virtual author events and pre-order campaigns that Blue Willow hosts means there's a steady stream of shipping, and they've had to turn the old signing desk for author events into a dedicated shipping table. "I hate it but we have no other choice," she said.

Koehler said the store was down slightly in 2020, mainly because two of their three book festivals were not held in-person. Aside from that, "we were very happy." She gave all the credit to her staff, including events coordinator/kids and YA specialist Cathy Berner and inventory manager Alice Meloy, as well as the rest of her team who came in every day "asking what needs to be done."

So far the store is down in 2021, and Koehler is unsure whether that's because of missing festivals or big grant orders, but she doesn't feel that traffic in the shop is down. She is just now getting back to doing some in-person talks, and the team is looking at the possibility of resuming in-store events in the fall. She added that these will probably be hybrid events.

Among bright spots, Koehler said virtual events allowed Blue Willow to host authors who would never have had the chance to visit the store in-person, while the team "learned not to be hard on ourselves" and "refined and refined" the store's procedures. Last week, in fact, the store held its first in-person staff meeting since March 2020. They caught up on all the "birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, funerals and graduations" that were missed this past year. --Alex Mutter

Pete Mulvihill

Craig Popelars

To celebrate Tin House's upcoming U.S. release of Waterlog: A Swimmer's Journey Through Britain by Roger Deakin, an independent publisher and an indie bookseller are going to swim their way from Portland, Ore., down to San Francisco, Calif.

Craig Popelars, publisher at Tin House, and Pete Mulvihill, co-owner of Green Apple Books in San Francisco, will road trip from Oregon to California from May 19 to May 25, swimming each day in cities, rivers, lakes and the ocean. The trip will culminate on May 25 with an event at Green Apple Books featuring swimmer and author Bonnie Tsui (Why We Swim), who wrote the introduction to Waterlog.

Originally published in 1999, Waterlog was the only book released in Roger Deakin's lifetime; he died in 2006. It recounts his journey swimming through Britain, in seas, rivers and lakes as well as moats and quarries. The book helped start the wild swimming movement and inspired nature writers like Helen MacDonald and Robert Macfarlane.

"First and foremost, it's a great British nature-writing book," said Popelars, who has been a swimmer since he was in second grade but had not done any open-water swimming until relatively recently. He had heard of the book and of Roger Deakin for years, but it was Mulvihill who introduced him to open-water swimming and finally convinced him to track down a copy.

Mulvihill noted that the book has been a "cult favorite in England" pretty much since it was published, adding that wild swimming is less about athletic achievements or feats of endurance than it is about connecting with and discovering the natural world. "You can be looking up at a city skyline," he said, "but literally be immersed in natue."

After reading the book, Popelars and Tin House "went down the rabbit hole" of trying to secure the rights. Their inquiries were "bounced around" until Tin House editorial director Masie Cochran eventually learned she had to speak with the executor of Deakin's estate. That turned out to be none other than nature writer Robert Macfarlane, author of Underland, The Old Ways and The Lost Words. Tin House acquired the rights, and Macfarlane agreed to write an afterword to the U.S. edition.

Popelars described publishing Waterlog as a passion project for him and several others at Tin House. "We could see it being one of those pass-along classics that people continue to come back to."

Popelars said their trip will begin when he and Mulvihill swim through downtown Portland. After that, they'll visit the Deschutes River when they swim through downtown Bend, and they'll swim in the Rogue River in southwest Oregon, one of the original eight rivers named in the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968. Reaching Tamolitch Falls on the McKenzie River, which Popelars described as looking like "something out of a fairy tale," will require a two-mile hike. And they won't just be in freshwater: they'll swim along the Oregon coast at Cannon Beach, and in Tomales Bay in Northern California. He and Mulvihill will be flexible about being on the road and where exactly they end up, but the point is to swim every day, rain or shine. 

In Waterlog, Deakin begins his swimming journey at a very difficult time in his life, and when Mulvihill and Popelars first started discussing their trip, they saw it as a way of moving out of the "very tough, dark place" that they've been in since the start of the pandemic. They want to do this not only to celebrate the book itself, but also the "greater community of bookselling and indie publishing." --Alex Mutter

Paul Von Drasek

Paul Von Drasek, the longtime and much-beloved sales executive, died in his sleep on Sunday, May 16, at his home. He was 71.

A lover of literature, a teacher in a variety of ways, and a dear friend to so many, Paul had more than 30 years of sales experience in publishing. His last full-time job was as trade sales manager at Capstone Press from 2009 until his retirement in 2015, when the company threw him a surprise party at Micawber's Books in St. Paul, Minn.

Before joining Capstone, he was director of field sales at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Trade Publishing, where he worked on the integration of the Houghton Mifflin and Harcourt's field sales forces. Before that, he was executive director of sales at Harcourt and worked in sales management positions at Little, Brown, Houghton Mifflin and Penguin.

Paul was a bookseller before getting into publishing. He began at the Strand in New York City, then worked at B. Dalton Bookseller's #1 store in Edina, Minn., and opened its Alexandria, Minn., store, and then moved to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Bookstore. After growing up in Mankato, Minn., he received a bachelor's degree at the University of Minnesota in humanities and a Master's in education at Minnesota State University/Mankato State. He was also a certified high school librarian.

Paul taught publishing at Columbia University School of Journalism and served as president of the board of directors for Curbstone Press in Connecticut.

In his busy retirement, he served on the board of and was a volunteer at 826 MSP, whose mission is to empower underserved K-12 students to think creatively, write effectively and succeed academically, and at Rain Taxi, the Minneapolis book review and literary organization that, among other things, sponsors the Twin Cities Book Festival, hosts readings and publishes chapbooks.

Paul was known for his droll sense of humor. He would joke, "Just one more merger and I can retire." To inspire the sales force, Paul arranged to have famous authors talk at big dinners. He would say, "You've heard of Stephen King, right? He works for us! And Garrison Keillor? He works for us, too! Rosemary Wells, she's my meal ticket!"

Because he loved music and was often on the road, Paul made mix tapes for his reps. One that he gave Shelf Awareness's own Matt Baldacci was called "Crooners."

Paul and his wife, Lisa Von Drasek, curator of the University of Minnesota's Kerlan Collection, often told about how they met: in 1985, she worked at Discovery Bookstore in Philadelphia, where she was the "girl behind the register" (as Ann Patchett put it), and he was the Viking/Penguin rep.

A celebration of life will take place Sunday, May 23 at 11 a.m. at Willwerscheid Funeral Home in Saint Paul, Minn. Family and friends are invited to arrive any time after 10 a.m. to be together. A Zoom memorial is being planned for later in the summer.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations can be made to Rain Taxi, 826 MSP and the Kerlan Collection Endowed Chair Fund at the University of Minnesota.

Lisa and Paul Von Drasek

The many friends and former colleagues of Paul Von Drasek have been slowly taking in the sad news of his sudden death on Sunday. Here some of them share what they treasure about him.

Jane Isay, a former colleague at Harcourt: "We loved talking books--and politics. He was such a good pal. When I got diabetes, I was told to exercise three times a week--not my favorite thing to do. To help me, Paul presented me with a CD with music he knew would get me going: old radical anti-war and labor songs from the '30s. I am listening to that music as I write these words. The song playing at this moment is 'Rise Up.' The music of our beloved Paul will play in our hearts forever."

George Gibson at Grove Atlantic: "Paul Von Drasek brightened the day of everyone he met. His laugh was endearing, his intelligence impressive, his humanity ever present. I can't count the number of ways I will miss him, but I will forever listen to his wonderful mixed-tape CDs--personalized with what he thought we'd want to hear--with a big smile and an ever-lasting loving memory."

Barbara Genco, librarian, formerly of Brooklyn Public Library Collections and Library Journal: "Were you a friend of Paul? Raise your hand if you still have and treasure one of his 'mixes.' <raises hand>

"This is not goodbye, dear friend. As long as there is great music to listen to and brilliant books to share, you are still among us."

Lisa Adams of the Garamond Agency: "I was fortunate to be on the board of Curbstone Press with Paul for more than a decade, and in 2009 we worked together on the transfer of Curbstone's publishing program to Northwestern University Press. While that marked the end of an era for a remarkable small press, Paul made a complicated and sometimes difficult process into something uplifting, bonding, and ultimately rewarding. We laughed, lugged boxes of books, drove endless miles, always with good music on board, and reminisced. He made us all feel worthy and loved and reminded us how essential books and new ideas can be. I've lost a true friend and co-conspirator."

Rain Taxi: "We at Rain Taxi are mourning the passing of our Board chair Paul Von Drasek, a person of unflagging enthusiasm for the book world that inspired us all to do our very best. We will miss Paul dearly; our community has lost a tireless and inspiring champion of all things literary."

Larry Dorfman remembered his first sales conference with Viking/Penguin, in 1986: "We shared rooms in those days, and when I checked in and walked into mine, Paul was already there. He was older than me by more than a few years but he still looked younger than he actually was, especially when he smiled. He came up to me and we shook hands, greeting me with, 'Welcome to your first conference. I'll be your guide for the duration of the ride!' We laughed and I knew I was in good hands.

"Paul had taken the bed nearest the window but told me I would be closer to the bathroom if I got up in the middle of the night. He was always good at spin.

"He then pointed to a large-ish box that he had placed on the side of my bed. 'I took the liberty of bringing you all the catalogs for the last four years.' In those days, there were at least five catalogs a season, and there were three seasons a year. 'I also marked up each one with notes about each of the books.' I can't remember for sure but I think my jaw dropped.

"He stayed close during the rest of the conference, stage-whispering in my ear who the players were, what the background was, and occasionally letting a juicy little tidbit or story out about the management or editorial.

"I was to discover that it was the kind of person Paul was. If you were in his life, he thought about you first and foremost, and nothing was too much to ask of him. We became fast friends....

"His passing this week floored me and left me heartbroken. We spoke a few weeks ago and brought each other up to speed and I was going to send him the new book I was working on. Could count on him to give me honest and constructive criticism, albeit in the nicest possible tone. It was his way.

"I take comfort that he went quietly in his sleep, the best way to go if you positively have to go. He wouldn't want anyone to be upset that he had suffered.

"That man, that man was a mensch."

Congratulations to Bel & Bunna's Books children's bookstore in Lafayette, Calif., which is celebrating its fifth anniversary this Saturday with day-long festivities, including special bookmarks, giveaways, a raffle, $10 hardbacks, a discount table "and obviously donuts (because... always). We are working on holding story time too--more on that later this week!"

When the bookshop opened in 2016, owner Clare McNeill told Bookselling This Week: "I am so passionate about this, I really am. I've never been as passionate about anything in my life. Having children read and encouraging them to read is so fundamental. I'm an example of somebody who somehow stumbled her way into following her dream and her passion."

Noting that masks are still required while shopping in the bookstore, Deadtime Stories, Lansing, Mich., posted on Facebook: "If there's one thing I've learned from reading/watching/listening to true crime, it's that you can't trust any-dang-body. So until it's safe for all of us to walk around unmasked without having to rely on the honor system, the masks stay. I hate them, too. I'm fully vaccinated, too. But we're playing the long game here. And the end is finally in sight. We can hang in just a little bit longer."

At HarperCollins Children's Books:

Sam Fox is joining the company as director of digital marketing. Fox was previously brand marketer and director at Condé Nast.

Farah Reza is joining the company as project manager. Reza was previously a marketer at By CHLOE.

Andrew Aguirre has joined the company as administrative assistant for publicity. He previously worked at LI Stuttering and Speech Pathology Center.

The Ex-Girlfriend of My Ex-Girlfriend Is My Girlfriend: Advice on Queer Dating, Love, and Friendship by Maddy Court, illustrated by Kelsey Wroten (Chronicle Books).

Tomorrow:
Good Morning America: Stacey Swann, author of Olympus, Texas: A Novel (Doubleday, $26.95, 9780385545211).

Also on GMA: Michelle Williams, author of Checking In: How Getting Real about Depression Saved My Life--and Can Save Yours (Thomas Nelson, $26.99, 9781400223336).

Ellen: Jake Tapper, author of The Devil May Dance: A Novel (Little, Brown, $28, 9780316530231).

The NBCUniversal streaming service has released a trailer for Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol on Peacock. Deadline reported that the project, written by Dan Dworkin and Jay Beattie and formerly known as Dan Brown's Langdon, "follows the early adventures of famed Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon (Ashley Zukerman), who must solve a series of deadly puzzles to save his kidnapped mentor and thwart a chilling global conspiracy."

The cast also includes Valorie Curry, Sumalee Montano, Rick Gonzalez, Eddie Izzard and Beau Knapp. The Last Symbol is the third Brown novel that features Langdon, following Angels & Demons and The Da Vinci Code.  

The 2021 longlist has been released for the A$60,000 (about US$46,480) Miles Franklin Literary Award, which celebrates novels "of the highest literary merit that tell stories about Australian life, shining a light on some of the country’s most talented writers." The shortlist will be announced June 16 and a winner named July 15. This year's longlisted titles are:

Amnesty by Aravind Adiga
The Rain Heron by Robbie Arnott
At the Edge of the Solid World by Daniel Davis Wood
Our Shadows by Gail Jones
Infinite Splendours by Sofie Laguna
The Labyrinth by Amanda Lohrey
The Animals in That Country by Laura Jean McKay
Lucky’s by Andrew Pippos
Stone Sky Gold Mountain by Mirandi Riwoe
The Fifth Season by Philip Salom
Song of the Crocodile by Nardi Simpson
The Inland Sea by Madeleine Watts

photo: Sophie Davidson

Christina Sweeney-Baird grew up between London and Glasgow. She studied law at the University of Cambridge and graduated with First Class Honours in 2015. She worked as a corporate litigation lawyer in London. Set in a world where a virus stalks the male population, The End of Men (Putnam, April 27, 2021) is her first novel; it has been translated into 14 languages.

On your nightstand now:

I just finished The Wedding Party by Jasmine Guillory, which was a charming romance that I read in a day and enjoyed enormously. I'm about to start Red Clocks by Leni Zumas; I heard Samantha Irby recommend it and was sold.

Favorite book when you were a child:

Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild. My mum adored Noel Streatfeild as a child so bought me Ballet Shoes and White Boots when I was very young in the hope I'd read and love them, which I did. I still feel like I know the Fossil sisters; they're like friends that I can dip into the book and see anytime I want. Petrova was always my favorite.

Your top five authors:

Ann Patchett for her gorgeous language and the empathy and warmth that shines out of her books. I recommend her collection of essays, This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage, and her most recent novel, The Dutch House, all the time.

Sarah J. Maas whom I only started reading in August 2020 and immediately became obsessed with. A Court of Thorns and Roses is now my favorite fantasy series.

Julia Quinn is the reason I'm a novelist; I picked up The Viscount Who Loved Me from the library when I was 13 and it made me want to be a writer. Her Bridgerton novels are full of wit and humor.

I'm a longtime fan of Marian Keyes. She writes sparkling, funny books set in Ireland based around big, gregarious families.

And Jane Austen, who I probably should have listed first but why not leave the best until last?

Book you've faked reading:

I've definitely told someone I've read Dickens at some point when, in reality, I have tried and failed to read Dickens many times. I'm sure I'll read him at some point. I strongly believe that there can be the right book at the wrong time. Books are forever, so if it doesn't work, try again later if you really want to read it.

Book you're an evangelist for:

Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed. So much wisdom in one book, it almost beggars belief. I've recommended it to countless people.

Book you've bought for the cover:

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett, which I then absolutely adored and was one of my top reads of 2020 (and the cover looks beautiful on my bookshelf).

Book you hid from your parents:

Polo and Riders by Jilly Cooper. I found copies of them when I was a teenager and my family lived with my grandmother for a few weeks when we were moving house. They're very '80s, filthy and completely brilliant. I now have the same literary agent as Jilly Cooper, which is still a source of amazement and joy; if I could go back and tell my 14-year-old self, she'd die of shock.

Book that changed your life:

For inspiring me to be an author, The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn. For making me reassess feminism, gender politics and the way men and women interact, How to Be a Woman by Caitlin Moran, which I read when I was 19. For influencing my writing and leading me towards writing The End of Men, The Power by Naomi Alderman.

Favorite line from a book:

From The Dutch House by Ann Patchett: "She told me repeatedly, relentlessly, that I was kind and smart and fast, that I could be as great a man as I made up my mind to be. She was so good at all that, despite the fact that no one had done it for her."

Five books you'll never part with:

The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn, How to Be a Woman by Caitlin Moran, A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas, The Dutch House by Ann Patchett and The Hating Game by Sally Thorne. And the galley of my novel, The End of Men, which sits proudly on my shelf and the existence of which still feels like magic.

Book you most want to read again for the first time:

Inferno by Catherine Cho. It's a haunting, beautifully written story about her experience of post-partum psychosis. It was released just as Covid was first exploding back in March 2020 and hasn't been talked about nearly enough.

Last book to make you laugh:

The Bride Test by Helen Hoang, which is one of my favorite romances.

Last book to make you cry:

Lanny by Max Porter, the form of which can be difficult but the emotions I felt when reading it were so strong. I wept near the end.

Books you wish you'd written:

For the extraordinary scope of its imagination, World War Z by Max Brooks. For the beauty of its language and its wisdom, Commonwealth by Ann Patchett.

Anita Silvey completes her trilogy of biographies (Untamed; Undaunted) about Louis Leakey's "Trimates" with Unforgotten: The Wild Life of Dian Fossey and Her Relentless Quest to Save the Mountain Gorillas, a candid, captivating account of a tenacious and ardent animal lover. Silvey gives Fossey (1932-1985) the royal treatment as she details the winding path that took the conservationist to a remote corner of Rwanda to research and live among the great apes.

Silvey connects Fossey's childhood--when she "felt isolated from and rejected by her parents" but "found love through her relationships with animals"--to her young adulthood when she tried pre-veterinary medicine. She struggled with physics and chemistry, so opted to earn a degree in occupational therapy instead. Then, her interest turned to the great apes of Rwanda. Silvey explains her nontraditional path by digging into Louis Leakey's mentorship of Fossey: he disregarded her lack of qualifications and worked to secure funding for her endeavor.

Fossey's 18 years in the mountains of Central Africa included struggles, missteps and learning experiences, as well as heartwarming and entertaining anecdotes. For example, Fossey at first "slapped her hands against her thighs to re-create the sound of [the gorillas'] chest-beating until she realized this noise alarmed the gorillas. Dian definitely got their attention, but she caused them to flee." Yet there is also the story of Puck, a young gorilla who "would take [Fossey's] binoculars and use them to survey the landscape like an explorer."

Silvey offers a balanced view, covering Fossey's alcoholism, erratic behavior and health problems, as well as her conflicts with the Rwandan government: "Dian had alienated far too many people.... Because she would not stay away, someone set out to kill her." Despite the shortcomings and the manner of her death, Silvey makes abundantly clear the monumental contribution Fossey made to the scientific community.  

Included in the book are photographs and sidebar content that enhance Silvey's narration. Young readers are provided with additional information about Leakey, other animals of the region and Gorillas in the Mist, the movie based on Fossey's life. At the conclusion of the book, a "Field Notes" section offers even more resources for inquisitive young scientists. Young animal lovers, science enthusiasts and conservationists should find Unforgotten riveting and inspiring. Girls in particular may be emboldened by Fossey's determination and passion, and any reader should find hope in the story of a woman who dedicated her life to helping others. --Jen Forbus, freelancer

Shelf Talker: Anita Silvey ensures that the next generation of conservationists remember a woman who put the welfare of gorillas above her own in this impressive summation of Dian Fossey's life and contributions.