What's New? The Zoo! - a review

Krull, Kathleen. 2014. What's New? The Zoo!: A Zippy History of Zoos. New York: Scholastic.  Illustrated by Marcellus Hall.

What's New? The Zoo? is an illustrated overview of zoos that combines history with hard science and social science.  Kathleen Krull outlines the history of zoos, and offers insight into what compels us to keep animals, what we've learned from them, and what has changed in zoos since the founding of the first known zoo,

4,400 Years Ago, The Sumerian City of Ur, in Present-Day Iraq
The king of beasts lunges and roars.  The King of Ur roars right back, feeling like the ruler of all nature.  How delicious to wield his power over dangerous animals!  It's the world's first known zoo, and all we're sure about (from clay tablets in libraries) is that is has lions.

From this beginning, Krull highlights transitional moments in zoos throughout the ages and across the globe.  Just a few examples include:

• Ancient Egypt and Rome where zoos were created to impress
• Ancient China where the zoo was a contemplative and sacred place
• Sweden where the science of zoology was established in 1735
• The U.S. National Zoo where the concept of zoos protecting threatened species was introduced
• South Africa's Kruger National Park where the protection of rhinos was so successful that rhinos were delivered to other zoos
• Germany, 1907, where the "cageless zoo" concept is introduced

(Did you know that Aristotle wrote the first encyclopedia of animals?)

On most pages, humorous, watercolor illustrations nestle around paragraphs of simple font against white space.  Several pages, however (including one depiction of fifteen buffalo waiting for a train at Grand Central Station, 1907), are double-spreads with many amusing details.

The very talented Kathleen Krull never disappoints!  If you like your science accessible and entertaining, this is the book for you.

A SLJ interview with Kathleen Krull on the history of zoos.

Parrots over Puerto Rico - a review

Roth, Susan L. and Cindy Trumbore. 2013. Parrots Over Puerto Rico. New York: Lee & Low.


I'll be the first to admit that when it comes to nonfiction books about the natural world, I prefer photography to artistic renderings.  Of course, there are always exceptions.  Jim Arnosky's, Thunderbirds (Sterling, 2011) and Martin Jenkins', Can We Save the Tiger? (Candlewick, 2011) come to mind.

Parrots Over Puerto Rico, however, is an extraordinary exception. Using highly detailed collage art, and employing many textured and brightly colored materials, Susan L. Roth has created a book that accurately portrays the colors of the island and evokes the stunning beauty of the endangered parrots of Puerto Rico. Designed to be read "portrait style," the collages cover about 2/3 of each double-spread layout.  Cindy Trumbore's narrative appears in a simple black font in the bottom third of the collage against a plain, complementary-colored background.

As stunning as it is, the artwork is not the only thing to love about Parrots over Puerto Rico. An astute teacher's dream, Parrots takes a holistic view of the parrots' rapid decline and slow slog back to viability in the wild.  As the story of the American Bison is forever entwined with the story of American Westward expansion, the Puerto Rican's parrot story is entwined with that of the Tainos, the Spaniards, and the Americans, as well as that of invasive species, and natural disasters like Hurricane Hugo.

Existing for millions of years on the island of Puerto Rico, they once numbered in the hundreds of thousands, and by 1975, had dwindled to only 13.

Above the treetops of Puerto Rico flies a flock or parrots as green as their island home.  If you look up from the forest, and you are very lucky, you might catch the bright blue flashes of their flight feathers and hear their harsh call.

These are Puerto Rican parrots.  They lived on this island for millions of years, and then they nearly vanished from the earth forever.  This is their story.

An Afterword contains photographs and information on the Puerto Rican Parrot Recovery Program.  Also included is a timeline of Important Dates in the History of Puerto Rico and Puerto Rican Parrots, and Author's Sources.

Among others, Parrots Over Puerto Rico can boast of these awards:

• Starred Reviews in: Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal, Booklist, The Horn Book Magazine
• Original Art 2013, Society of Illustrators
• Books for Youth Editors' Choice 2013, Booklist 
• Junior Library Guild Selection

You can see a preview of Parrots Over Puerto Rico on Lee & Low's website, however, it doesn't do the book justice, as the preview is in landscape mode, while the actual bound book reads lengthwise.  Still, it's worth a gander.


 Check out this short video if you'd like to see an actual Puerto Rican parrot.




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Can We Save the Tiger? a review

Here’s another review of a  Cybils Nonfiction Picture Book finalist …


Jenkins, Martin. 2011. Can We Save the Tiger? Ill. By Vicky White. Somerville, MA: Candlewick.

Martin Jenkins explains extinction and its causes in a manner that, while factual, is also conversational and thought provoking.  Consider his opening paragraphs that inspire an immediate sense of wonder combined with an easy familiarity,

The world’s quite a big place, you know.  But it’s not that big, when you consider how much there is to squeeze into it.
After all, it’s home not just to billions of people, but to the most amazing number of other kinds of living things, too.  And we’re all jostling for space.

After a cursory introduction to extinction, he offers the varying reasons for why creatures have become extinct – poaching, invasive non-native species, over-hunting, chemical poisoning.  Each time, he hints that problems are not so easily solved.  Take the tiger for example,

…they’re big, they need a lot of space.  But the countries where they live, like India and Indonesia, have huge numbers of people in them too, all trying to make a living and needing to be fed. …
So if you were a poor farmer trying to make a living with a couple of cows and a few goats, you might not be too happy if you found there was a hungry tiger living nearby.  And if you knew that someone might pay you more for a tiger skin and some bones than you earn in three whole months working in the fields, then you might find it very tempting to set a trap or two, even if you knew it was against the law.

Jenkins looks at failures (the Dodo, the Great Auk and others), successes (the Buffalo, the White Rhinoceros, the Kakapos, and more) and other works in progress.  In each case, he presents the conundrum of competing interests or unintended consequences in a manner easily understood by young readers.  Text size, too, is inviting to younger readers – smaller text is punctuated by sections of very large font print.

Similarly to Jim Arnosky’s Thunder Birds, field-style pencil sketches accompany many pages.  Vicky White’s larger illustrations are done in pencil and oil paint with lightly sketched backgrounds, or on plain cream-colored pages. The large and realistic illustrations are accompanied by basic facts including habitat, size, diet, life span, and existing population. An index and online resources complete the book.

A small final illustration of the rare Sander’s Slipper Orchid hints that not only creatures are in danger of extinction; or perhaps the illustration hints at a future book. The over sized book has sturdy pages that, although they have a matte finish, have a smooth and creamy texture - like icing on the cake.  A beautiful and affecting book.

Can We Save the Tiger? is a 2011 Cybils finalist in the Nonfiction Picture Book category.

Nonfiction Monday is at Lori Calabrese Writes! today.

Meadowlands: A Wetlands Survival Story

It's Nonfiction Monday and I'm pleased to be today's host location!

Yezerski, Thomas F., 2011. Meadowlands: A Wetlands Survival Story. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux.

From the top of the Empire State Building in New York City, you can see a flat, wet place in New Jersey.  Some people think it's just smelly swamps.  Others think of it as where the airport or malls or stadiums are.  Most people think it's not much of a place at all.  This place is called the Meadowlands.

Though the word meadow conjures thoughts of an idyllic landscape, to many New Jerseyans and nearby New Yorkers, the word Meadowlands does not.  Instead, thoughts of Giants Stadium, Super Fund sites, and, according to the governor, the state's ugliest building come to mind.  But as New Jersey resident Thomas F. Yezerski points out in Meadowlands: A Wetlands Survival Story, the Meadowlands is and always has been a changing place.

Yezerski begins the Meadowlands' story several hundred years ago when the Meadowlands was "20,000 acres of marshes, swamps, and bogs that were home to many different plants and animals," as well as the native people, the Lenni Lenape. Throughout the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, the area went through various changes - most of them for the worse.  Landfills, chemical dumping, noxious smells, overcrowding, filthy water - the picture looked grim, and the Garden State's new reputation as a smelly place along the Turnpike was fixed in the nation's consciousness.

But even after being dug out, filled in, run over, and dumped on, the wetlands still showed signs of life.  The Hackensack River still flowed south.  The tide still rose north from the Atlantic Ocean.  The river and tide still met in the Meadowlands twice a day, as they had for 10,000 years.  Because they did, the ecosystem had a chance to recover.

Meadowlands is a hopeful story. A story of the return of fish, birds, and even the marshland itself.  It's a story of possibility, of the positive effect that people can have when they are so determined.  Yezerski's love for the area is apparent. His pen and watercolor illustrations show that he has spent many hours and days in the Meadowlands, capturing its essence. Realistic detailing is present throughout, particularly in the birds, which approach guide book quality.  Each double spread features a rectangular painting set in a frame of white space.  Related icon-sized images surround the main illustration. Text appears plainly at the bottom of each page - no more than 4 lines per page.

The final pages show the fragile combination of a now bird-filled marshland located within one of the nation's most densely populated urban areas. The cover art, featuring a snowy egret in this urban wilderness is stunning.

Meadowlands should be required reading for all New Jersey schoolchildren, but it has value beyond New Jersey as well. It spreads the hopeful message:  If we can do it, so can you. Where there is water flowing, there is life.

Highly recommended.

Author's Note, Selected Bibliography, and Selected Web Sites are included.

You can learn more about the Meadowlands at the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission site or the many sites devoted to the Meadowlands' varied commercial ventures.

Link your Nonfiction Monday post below.  If you're not posting today or just stopped by to read, please check out the other great nonfiction posts linked below.  In either case, thanks for stopping by.

Astro: The Steller Sea Lion

It's Nonfiction Monday again.  Be sure to stop by Wrapped in Foil for the day's roundup of nonfiction gems.

Harvey, Jeanne Walker. 2010. Astro: The Steller Sea Lion. Ill. by Shennen Bersani. Mt. Pleasant, SC: Sylvan Dell.

Steller sea lions are a threatened species; so when a scientist spotted an abandoned pup swimming off the coast of California, the Marine Mammal Center was contacted to save the it. Following the rescue, workers at the Center prepared the sea lion, nicknamed Astro,  for his return to the wild - the usual course of action. However, after multiple attempts to return Astro to the ocean (including one in which Astro swam for three days to return to shore, where he came aground and participated in an elementary school's walk-a-thon!), researchers and scientists finally concluded that Astro was not a candidate for reintroduction into his native habitat.  After a stop at UC Santa Cruz, Astro found a permanent home in at the Mystic Aquarium in Mystic, Connecticut.  You can see him there today.

Astro: The Steller Sea Lion is an engaging teaching tool for readers and students seeking to learn about animal rescue, Steller sea lions, or threatened species.  Astro's unique adventures make his story as entertaining as it is informative,

Finally, he let go. With a huge splash, Astro swam deep into the ocean.  His friends cheered.  But . . .  10 days later, Astro swam under the Golden Gate Bridge into San Francisco bay.  He climbed onto a sandy beach in someone's backyard - not far from The Marine Mammal Center.

Astro had bonded with humans and was not interested in returning to the ocean.

The text is large and the vocabulary is fairly simple, making this a book that children can enjoy without help.  Plain font, black text appears in the open spaces of sea and sky in Shennen Bersani's stunning illustrations.  The double-spread ilustrations are near photographic quality, though the book jacket notes that she uses colored pencils primarily, "sometimes using a mixed-media technique of colored pencils, crayons, and paint."  The results are precise and strikingly realistic.

Back matter includes species facts, information and maps on Steller sea lions, life cycle information, and "Sea Lion or Seal?"

This is a story that does not have the happy ending that children may be expecting; Astro cannot be reintroduced to the wild, however, this is a good lesson on the limits of man's influence over nature. The best that we can do is the best that we can do.

Curiously, the book's cataloging summary lists it as fiction. Though minor details may have been changed, Astro and his adventures are most certainly real. A video about Astro and a link to a related newspaper article are below.

This is an attractive and informative book that will appeal to students, teachers, and marine life enthusiasts.
Preview Astro the Steller Sea Lion here.
A link to a 2007 newspaper article about Astro's surprise participation in a school walk-a-thon.
Teaching resources are available from the publisher.


QUEST on KQED Public Media.

Review copy received from author.

Scat

Hiaasen, Carl. 2009. Scat. Read by Edward Asner. New York: Listening Library.



Scat is the latest of Carl Hiaasen's single-syllabled, adventure mysteries - following the very successful Hoot and Flush. As in his previous books, Florida's wildlife and wild places take center stage in this environmental mystery featuring the endangered Florida panther. The mystery begins when the stern Mrs. Starch takes her Biology class on a field trip to the Black Vine Swamp. One student, nicknamed "Smoke," had a run-in with Mrs. Starch a day earlier and fails to show up for the trip. A fire in the swamp forces the students to return immediately to school, but Mrs. Starch, who had driven her own car, never arrives back at the Truman School.

Teenagers, Nick and Marta, begin to unravel the tangled mystery, beginning with a video Nick filmed in the swamp.

Kidnapping? Arson? Theft? Environmental crime?

What exactly is going on in the Black Vine Swamp?

More than just an environmental mystery, Scat touches on the concept of crime (can it ever be justified?) and the Iraq War (Nick's father is stationed in Iraq). The mystery unfolds asynchronously and from varying perspectives, adding intrigue but making it a more difficult book for reluctant readers.


My library has this book classified as young adult (YA) fiction, but it's certainly appropriate for 5th grade and up.

I listened to the audio version. After my initial surprise at hearing the gruff, old voice of Ed Asner, I easily settled in to the story and his depiction of the characters. His voice is particularly effective in creating the voices of grizzled old Floridians, oil men, and law enforcement officers.

Better than my own recommendation, my teen-aged daughter enjoyed Scat and my "reluctant-reader" son read it for hours yesterday!