INFORMATIONAL BOOKS

KAKAPO RESCUE: SAVING THE WORLD'S LARGEST PARROT

written by Sy Montgomery

photographs by Nic Bishop

Houghton Mifflin Books for Children

Boston, Massachusetts

2010

 

SUMMARY

In Kakapo Rescue: Saving the World’s Strangest Parrot, Sy Montgomery leads readers on a ten day expedition through Codfish Island off the coast of New Zealand as she and Nic Bishop track Kakapo Parrots.  These parrots are the heaviest parrots in the world, don’t fly, are nocturnal, and can live to be at least seventy years old.  Montgomery begins with a history of the Kakapo and how they nearly fell to extinction.  Readers then follow the team as they move through a quarantine process to prevent the birds from exposure to any diseases or germs that could put them at risk.  Once on the island, Montgomery and Bishop became part of the conservation team, feeding, tracking, and monitoring the parrots while trying to increase the Kakapo population.  In addition to photographs of the Kakapo, this book is peppered with photos of other flora and fauna found on the island.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

 

Conservationist Sy Montgomery shares her passion for saving the endangered Kakapo parrot while creating a story that gives readers the feeling of being right by her side.  Montgomery’s narrative style speaks to the reader, eliciting emotions not always experienced in informational literature.  Her straightforward language enables readers to understand a scientific journey on a lesser known island.  
The National Kakapo Recovery Team Leader, Emma O’Neil, read the entire manuscript for accuracy, which lends credibility to the text.  A bibliography is included, giving readers the ability to follow up on the topic.  Montgomery has included an index, but the story in this book is intriguing and is better read from beginning to end.  The index might, however, be helpful when looking for specific information after finishing the book.

Nic Bishop’s photography is superb.  The colors are vibrant and appealing, following the story and making it easy for readers to picture exactly what Montgomery is talking about.  The pictures take readers on a photo-journey through Codfish Island, highlighting the work being done by volunteers and showcasing the Kakapo.

A fun design element included in Kakapo Rescue: Saving the World’s Strangest Parrot is the egg shape around page numbers.  As the story progresses, the egg shows cracks, breaks, and finally opens completely, indicating the hatching stage of the Kakapo.  There are pages with pale green ferns printed on them and pages with a green shaded background; these pages tend to venture away from the ten day journey to provide background or other information about the area.

REVIEW EXCERPTS

 

School Library Journal - "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."

Booklist -  "Montgomery and Bishop, whose highly lauded titles include two Sibert Honor Books, offer yet another winning entry in the Scientists in the Field series.  ---  As usual, 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 by the incredible measures that the passionate workers follow to help the new birds hatch, and many will share the team's heartbreak when some chicks die. Bishop's photos of the creatures and their habitat are stunning; an awe-inspiring, closing image of the world's eighty-seventh known Kakapo emerging from its shell captures the miracle of birth, for any species."

Kirkus - "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."

Booklist - "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."

The Bulletin - "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."

CONNECTIONS

Students could read other books in the Scientists in the Field Series, particulary those pertaining to endangered animals.

Students could read other books about Kakapo parrots:
Ballance, Alison. Kakapo: Rescued from the Brink of Extinction. Nelson, N.Z.: Craig Potton Pub, 2010.

This would be a great book to use with students who are studying conservation, endangered animals, New Zealand/Australia, or volunteerism.

AWARDS

2011 Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award


Montgomery, Sy, and Nic Bishop. Kakapo Rescue: Saving the World's Strangest Parrot. Boston [Mass.]: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, 2010.