Kakapo Rescue

Kakapo Rescue

Saving the World's Strangest Parrot

Text by Sy Montgomery

Photographs by Nic Bishop 

 

Sy Montgomery has authored 15 books for adults and children and is a board member of the Rainforest Conservation fund, Restore! The North Woods and the Center for Tropical Conservation. She has received many honors including the 2010 Children's Book Guild Nonfiction Award. Nic Bishop has authored and/or illustrated over 20 books, most of them being books for children. Kakapo Rescue has received the following recognitions and awards: the 2011 Sibert award, BCCB Blue Ribbon 2010, 2011 ALA Notable Children's books, 2011 Orbis Pictus Recommended, Booklist 2010 Editor's Choice and Kirkus 2010 Best Children's Books.

Kakapo Rescue tells about a 10 day excursion of the New Zealand's National Kakapo Recovery Team to Codfish Island off the southern coast of New Zealand. The team works together to try and restore the kakapo population, prepare special food, install radio-wave tracking devices, monitor live video, and hatch and feed baby kakapo. Beautiful photographs accompany the text showing the teams adventures with the kakapo as well as other wildlife and the gorgeous landscapes of New Zealand. 

Broken up into chapters and with more text in smaller font, Kakapo Rescue is meant for older children and young adults (grades 5-9) and is intended to stimulate interest and understanding of conservation for nature and animals that most readers may not experience during their day-to-day life. The book is filled with amazing photography and each page spread contains at least one photograph with accompanying captions. 

The text pulls at the reader's emotions and builds anticipation: "But what if he died of a contagious disease? What if there was something wrong with the food? Are the other kakapo in danger? What should we do?" (Montgomery 61). The book contains an index, a selected bibliography and information about giving private donations for the Kakapo Recovery Program.

Professional Reviews for Kakapo Rescue:

• Horn Book Magazine: "Montgomery's in-depth descriptions and Bishop's glorious photographs cover all aspects of the conservation effort."
• 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 by the incredible measures that the passionate workers follow."
• 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."

More books by Sy Montgomery
Interview with Nic Bishop
Classroom Activities 

Sy Montgomery. Kakapo Rescue: Saving the World's Strangest Parrot. New York: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, 2010. 

ISBN 978-0-618-49417-0

$15.39 at Barnes & Noble

Work consulted: Vardell, Sylvia M. Children's Literature in Action: A Librarian's Guide. Connecticut: Libraries Unlimited, 2008.