Kakapo Rescue: Saving the World's Strangest Parrot (Scientists in the Field)

by Sy Montgomery (Author) Nic Bishop (Illustrator)

Kakapo Rescue: Saving the World's Strangest Parrot (Scientists in the Field)
Reading Level: 4th − 5th Grade
On remote Codfish Island off the southern coast of New Zealand live the last 91 kakapo parrots on Earth. Two Sibert Honor winners chronicle a sensitive and scientific exploration about the endangered kakapo parrot. Full color.
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Starred Review
Under the careful supervision of forest rangers and volunteers on an island off the New Zealand coast, the nearly extinct, flightless Kakapo parrot is the object of an intensive rescue effort described by this experienced writer-photographer team...As always, the photographer's remarkable and clearly reproduced photographs support and enhance the text. The book's careful design is unobtrusive: The progress of an opening egg sets off page numbers, and fern patterns provide a subtle decoration. Bibliography and a website encourage readers' further explorations. Wonderful.

ALA/Booklist

Starred Review
Montgomery's delight in her subject is contagious, and throughout her enthusiastic text, she nimbly blends scientific and historical facts with immediate, sensory descriptions of fieldwork. Young readers will be fascinated.

School Library Journal

Starred Review
Gr 5-8 Take a parrot. Color it green. Give it soft, fluffy feathers, and whiskers. Give it sumo proportions and take away its power of flight. Make it nocturnal, and have it nest underground. Aha! A kakapo! Once millions of these rather affable birds waddled all over New Zealand. Reduced (at present) to fewer than 90, the kakapo have been isolated on Codfish Island (free of feral cats, weasels, and stoatsall introduced species) and are now under the strict, careful guardianship of the New Zealand National Kakapo Recovery Team. Montgomery and Bishop were granted 10 days in which to accompany members of the team (many volunteering their time and efforts) as they radio-tracked the birds night and day in their forest habitat, weighed chicks, watched nesting behavior through hidden cameras, and plowed through gale-force winds and torrential rain to monitor the well-being of their charges. Excellent photos and a readable, conversational text provide an intimate look at a concerted effort to save a drastically endangered species unfamiliar to most of the world outside Down Under. Readers who enjoyed this author/photographer team's "The Tarantula Scientist" (2007) or "Quest for the Tree Kangaroo" (2006, both Houghton) will gobble up this tribute to ecological science in action."Patricia Manning, formerly at Eastchester Public Library, NY" Copyright 2010 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Review quotes

"More than most books about environmentalism or endangered species, this will encourage kids to consider how hands-on action can genuinely make a difference and how scientific contributions can be made by people who never go near a test tube."—The Bulletin, starred review
Classification
Non-fiction
ISBN-13
9780544668294
Lexile Measure
950
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
Clarion Books
Publication date
May 03, 2016
Series
Scientists in the Field
BISAC categories
JNF003030 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Animals | Birds
JNF003270 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Animals | Endangered
Library of Congress categories
Wildlife conservation
Wildlife rescue
Conservation
Parrots
Kakapo
Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award
Winner 2011 - 2011
Cybils
Finalist 2010 - 2010
Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award
Nominee 2012 - 2012
Capitol Choices: Noteworthy Books for Children and Teens
Recommended 2011 - 2011
Young Hoosier Book Award
Nominee 2013 - 2013
Grand Canyon Reader Award
Nominee 2015 - 2015

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