The tragedy of extinction is explained through the dramatic story of a legendary bird, the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, and of those who tried to possess it, paint it, shoot it, sell it, and, in a last-ditch effort, save it. A powerful saga that sweeps through two hundred years of history, it introduces artists like John James Audubon, bird collectors like William Brewster, and finally a new breed of scientist in Cornell's Arthur A. "Doc" Allen and his young ornithology student, James Tanner, whose quest to save the Ivory-bill culminates in one of the first great conservation showdowns in U.S. history, an early round in what is now a worldwide effort to save species. As hope for the Ivory-bill fades in the United States, the bird is last spotted in Cuba in 1987, and Cuban scientists join in the race to save it.
All this, plus Mr. Hoose's wonderful story-telling skills, comes together to give us what David Allen Sibley, author of The Sibley Guide to Birds calls "the most thorough and readable account to date of the personalities, fashions, economics, and politics that combined to bring about the demise of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker."
The Race to Save the Lord God Bird is the winner of the 2005 Boston Globe - Horn Book Award for Nonfiction and the 2005 Bank Street - Flora Stieglitz Award.
Goodreads Summary
"Lord God, what a bird," was the best way to describe the Ivory-billed Woodpecker because it was a magnificent aviary marvel that is now extinct. This book follows the conservationists that were struggling to document this amazing bird when it was on its way out, and preserve it as long as humanly possible.
This award winning book is fascinating and will captivate you attnetion if you have any inkling of interest in historical tragedies. It is always strange to me to contemplate an extinct animal on this planet that existed not too long ago. The dinosaurs are millions of years dead, but this woodpecker was here in 1987, only two years after I was born. The pictures in the book are breathtaking, however my one complaint is that more were not in color instead of black and white. The story completely makes up for that though and is completely worth the read to learn about this recently extinct masterpiece of and animal.
5 Stars
*Reviewed by Chris*
This product or book may have been distributed for review, this in no way affects my opinions or reviews. COPYRIGHT © 2014 LIVE TO READ
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