Franklin & Eleanor

• Title: Franklin & Eleanor
• Author: Cheryl Harness
• Age Range: 8 and up
• Grade Level: 2 and up
• Hardcover: 48 pages
• Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
• Published:  (December 16, 2004)
• Language: English

-Amazon Review


This dual biography on Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt contains a Roosevelt family tree, a chronology of events, a bibliography, and engaging illustrations that help the audience identify more with Franklin and Eleanor. I chose this book specifically because I knew nothing about Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt and I wanted to see how much I could learn from a youth nonfiction. Surprisingly, I learned a lot and had fun doing it! Not only did I get an insight into this prominent American couple, but this story placed Franklin and Eleanor within the context of their time period.

Characters:

Franklin D. Roosevelt- born to wealthy parents, went to Harvard, became Governor of New York and then President of the United States.

Eleanor Roosevelt-born to wealthy parents who died early, was raised by her grandmother, educated in London, became First Lady of the United States.

My Review

Roosevelt's presidency saw the end of the Great Depression and the beginning of WWII.  The book looks at how Roosevelt's personal fight against Polio and Eleanor being orphaned at a young age helped make them the strong people that altered not only U.S. History, but the world. They fought for better lives for all people and Eleanor Roosevelt helped draft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights for the UN. One thing that I never realized before was that Franklin and Eleanor were distant cousins. I think the author could have mentioned that this was a common practice for the time period so that youth aren't overly concerned about distant cousins being married.

Overall, the story moved nicely and youth would not have any problems reading it. The story was told through a third person narrator who managed to make Franklin and Eleanor personable through the generations.

 

 

Kakapo Rescue: Saving the World's Strangest Parrot

 

By Sy Montgomery (author) and Nic Bishop (illustrator)

Price: $15.39 (hardcover)

Published: 2010

 

• Age Range: 10 and up
• Grade Level: 5 and up
• Lexile Measure: 950L (What's this?)
• Series: Scientists in the Field Series
• Hardcover: 80 pages
• Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers; None edition (May 24, 2010)
• Language: English

-Amazon

 

Synopsis

 

The narrator and his photographer take a ten day excursion to a private nature reserve in New Zealand to get a first hand experience of the work going in to try to save an almost extinct parrot species: the Kakapo (Kar-ka-po). 

The photographs included are amazing

A few key characters: 

Narrator: presumably the author, Sy Montgomery

Nic: the photographer

 

Female Kakapos: Rakiura, Apirima,Cyndy, Lisa, Flossie

Male Kakapos: Sirocco, Richard Henry, Sinbad

 

The humans trying to save the Kakapos: Catherine, Lynnie, Jeff, Jo, Tristan, Becky, Daryl, and Deidre

Review

This book uses narrative nonfiction to elicit an emotional response from its readers. By telling the story of these individual parrots (each with their own names), the readers really begin to care about these parrots. At the end of the story is an address where people can donate money to help save the Kakapo. This book does a great job at making people care about these birds that they will never see and they would otherwise care nothing about. The books educates readers on what the Kakapo is, why it is facing extinction, and what is being done to try to preserve this species.

 

 

The book itself is full of tools to help readers out. There is a map of New Zealand at the beginning of the book to let readers know where the story is taking place (not unlike a Tolkien novel). All of the fantastic photographs have captions explaining either the photograph or an interesting piece of information about the Kakapo. Some interesting sections added are the "fast facts", "New Zealand's Splendid Isolation", and "The Two Richard Henrys". These sections give context and history to the story. At the end of the book is also a selected bibliography and an index. 

 

How adorable are these birds?!!

The narrator lets the reader see ten days of activity on this isolated island that is dedicated to the preservation of the Kakapo. We see all of the nuances that the rangers and volunteers do every day to care for these birds. We are told that there are only 87 Kakapo on the island when the narrator leaves. The eggs and chicks are the most prized because they are the possible future of this species and the loss of even one is heart- wrenching.

 

My favorite part of the entire story is "A Night with Sirocco." Sirocco is a parrot that was raised by humans. As such, he has a bit of an identity problem and thinks he's in love with every human he meets during mating season. This part appealed to me the most because it made me feel amusement "Jeff split open his toe when he was racing downhill toward the hut, trying to run past the parrot and escape his unwanted attentions" (p35) and an extreme sadness for this little bird that will never find love because of careless human involvement.