Review by Booklist Review
Ages 6^-8. The authors offer a twist on the traditional animal ABC book. Covering a broad time span, they introduce a selection of extinct, not-so-familiar creatures, from the dodo bird to the quagga. A picture of the letter and of the highlighted animal is accompanied by a succinct, clearly written paragraph that identifies characteristics of the beast and explains the reason behind its extinction (usually because of hunting and deforestation). An intriguing addition to natural history collections, this offers young readers a glimpse of the unusual-looking animals they can't visit today. --Kathleen Squires
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 4ÄA mixed bag. Vibrant, full-page acrylic illustrations bring to life an interesting assortment of extinct insects, reptiles, birds, fish, and mammals, most of which are not described in standard titles. These creatures span continents and time periods; the blackfin cisco was last seen about 30 years ago, while others, such as the elephant bird, have been gone for thousands of years. Humans, primarily hunters, shoulder the blame for many, but not all of the disappearances; some of the causes for decline remain unknown today. The alphabetic arrangement is erratic: the great auk represents G, but the Palestinian painted frog is the entry for F and the Cuban yellow bat stands in for Y. Latin names are not given, and there is no index. The information, generally confined to one succinct paragraph, provides an adequate glance at some unusual creatures and successfully highlights notable characteristics. Pair this book with Dorothy Patent's Back to the Wild (Harcourt, 1997) or Cristina Kessler's All the King's Animals (Boyds Mills, 1995) for positive looks at how some species have been saved from near death. Or use it to supplement some of the other solid titles on this topic such as Alexandra Wright's Will We Miss Them? (Charlesbridge, 1992) and Marjory Facklam's And Then There Was One (Little, Brown, 1990).ÄMarilyn Payne Phillips, University City Public Library, MO (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
This alphabet book provides factual information about twenty-six extinct animals' original habitats and life cycles and mentions causes and dates of their extinction. Color illustrations show readers what these animals looked like. Nearly all of the animals are extinct due to human activity, either directly wiped out by hunting or indirectly by disruption of their natural habitats. Addresses of wildlife protection groups are included. From HORN BOOK Fall 1998, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
From the last auroch to the last Burchell's zebra, this handsome alphabet book presents an extinct animal for every letter of the alphabet. Through a careful selection of animals that includes insects, fish, amphibians, birds, and mammals, the Markles give an international and historical perspective to extinct species, and introduce the complex and varied reasons behind extinction. A brief paragraph accompanies each full-page (sometimes full-spread) portrait of the featured animal; D‡valos often includes visual information about its habitat in the meticulously rendered paintings. Some stories will be familiar, e.g., the passenger pigeon killed for sport, but others will be new: the Gull Island vole of Long Island, New York, which became extinct when the soldiers from the Spanish-American War dug up its habitat, or Captain Maclear's rat of the Christmas Islands, which was destroyed by vicious ship rats and the diseases they brought. A good starting point for any inquiry into extinct and endangered species. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
