Excerpt from The Book of Hope by Jane Goodall, Douglas Abrams, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

"The naturalist," Jane said, "looks for the wonder of nature—she listens to the voice of nature and learns from nature as she tries to understand it. Whereas a scientist is more focused on facts and the desire to quantify. For a scientist, the question is, 'Why is this adaptive? How does it contribute to the survival of the species?'

"As a naturalist, you need to have empathy and intuition—and love. You've got to be prepared to look at a murmuration of starlings and be filled with awe at the amazing agility of these birds. How do they fly in a flock of several thousand without touching at all, and yet have such close formations, and swoop and turn together almost as one? And why do they do it—for fun? For joy?" Jane looked up at the imagined starlings, and her hands danced as if they were a flock of birds rippling through the sky.

Excerpted from The Book of Hope by Jane Goodall and Douglas Abrams. Copyright © 2021 by Jane Goodall and Douglas Abrams. Excerpted by permission of Celadon. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.