Thanks to Joanna over at Miss Marple's Musings, I realized in the nick of time that today's Perfect Picture Book Friday coincides with the 8th Annual Endangered Species Day. So I have chosen a special book. I hope you will enjoy it.
Written By: Sandrine Silhol and Gaelle Guerive
Illustrated By: Marie Doucedame
Abrams Books For Young Readers, November 2011, Non-Fiction
Suitable For Ages: 10 and up
Themes/Topics: endangered species
Opening: "Our lives are closely connected to those of the animals that surround us. The monkey is our cousin, we've domesticated the horse, the now-extinct aurochs has become the ox, the wolf has turned into our dog, the silkworm has given us beautiful clothes, and the maggot protects us from serious infections. We've identified roughly over a million animal species. Of those numbers, the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List indicates that close to 43,000 are endangered and face possible extinction."
Brief Synopsis: The book begins with a brief overview of living in harmony with nature, biodiversity, which animals need protection, and how important any effort to help is, as well as a map of the world showing where you would find the animals listed in the book. (It really is brief - only about 4 pages.) This is followed by the main part of the book which details 34 species that are endangered (from Europe, Asia, North and South America, Africa, and Oceania).
Links To Resources: The book itself is a resource, full of information on many endangered animals. It has a glossary in the back along with several sections on how you can help endangered animals. It could be used in conjunction with study of animals, the environment, science etc.
Why I Like This Book: Full of large, gorgeous color photographs, this book is appealingly written in fairly small chunks of text that are informative in a fun way with lots of little details about the animals. I think kids would find it interesting and accessible. I think the plight of endangered species is an important one to be informed about and to try to help with. And it's hard to stop looking at those photographs! :)
For the complete list of books with resources, please visit Perfect Picture Books.
Now. We have one other item on the agenda today. Usually I tease you for a while before I tell you what you want to know, but today I'm going to be very mature.
I'm going to get right to the point.
Without wasting a moment, I'm going to just come straight out and tell you that the Can't Sleep Without Sheep Jingle Contest and the Can't Sleep Without Sheep Kids' Drawing Contest have both been clearly and decisively won.
Congratulations to the winners! Well done!
Have a great weekend, everyone! See you Monday! (PPBF Bloggers, please put your post-specific links in the list below so we can all come see your recommendations for this week.)
What?
You're still here?
Shouldn't you be off reading everyone's picture book recommendations?
OH!
You want to know WHO the winners are?
Golly! You guys are sticklers for details!
Fine. I'll be more specific :)
The winners are...
both human!
Not good enough, eh?
OK. The winners both...
used sheep in their winning entries!
No?
Well, how about this:
The winners are both...
under 12 and from the same family!!!
Need I say more?
That's right! The popular vote has spoken, and the winner of the Can't Sleep Without Sheep Jingle Contest is none other than the incredible 11 year-old film wizard himself, ERIK!!!
And the winner of the Can't Sleep Without Sheep Kids' Drawing Contest is his sister, the very talented JOSIE!!!
Apparently talent is genetic :)
Hearty congratulations to Erik and Josie for amazing entries, and to all our other contestants who did a truly fabulous job - each and every one of you! I can't thank you enough for putting it all out there for Can't Sleep Without Sheep, even though after all that we are still waiting for the technical glitch to be resolved and the e-book is still not available. Who cares? It was tons of fun! :)
Oh, and lest I forget, we have one more winner - the winner of the Social Media Love Contest, for FB posting, tweeting, and/or blogging to raise awareness. That winner, selected by random.org, is Beth Stilborn! (Apparently random.org really likes Beth! :))
Thanks to everyone for writing, recording, filming, drawing, reading, listening, watching, FB posting, tweeting, blogging, and voting - what a wonderful bunch you are!!! :)
Erik, Josie, and Beth - please email me and we'll talk prizes :)
NOW PPBF bloggers leave your post specific links and everyone go have a great weekend! :)
