Few contemporary writers are as well known or highly regarded as Margaret Atwood. What is not well known is that the Canadian novelist, poet, and literary critic was home schooled through the sixth grade. Atwood spent much of her childhood following her dad around the backwoods of Northern Quebec, where he worked as a forest entomologist, learning to be at home in nature and to learn naturally at home. A long-time environmental activist and vegetarian, no doubt the time in the woods with her father played a role in igniting Atwood’s love of animals and the environment. Atwood’s latest novel, The Year of the Flood (2009), envisions the future emergence of a new environmentally rooted science/religion hybrid in the wake of a massive ecological disaster caused by genetic engineering experiments. The book contains several religious hymns written by Atwood, who has indicated that her own religious beliefs are similar to those displayed in the book.