Posts Tagged with conservation

Book review: Rewilding: Bringing Wildlife back where it belongs

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David A Steen and Chiara Fedele, published by Neon-Squid

Welcome to my stop on the FCBG News blog tour for Non-Fiction November #NNFN2022

“Rewilding projects are wildlife reintroductions that try to reverse the trend. They bring animals and plants back to areas where they used to live, but that they have disappeared from – usually because we overhunted them or changed their habitat too much”

p1 Rewilding

This is a clearly written and informative non-fiction book, with realistic colour illustrations that help to bring the animals and habitats to life. It gives examples from across the globe, in a range of habitats of the many ways humans have tried to return wildlife to their natural habitats. Neon-Squid the publisher is a relative new comer to children’s non-fiction but their books are definitely worth checking out. 

It raises some interesting questions about the interplay between humans and wildlife, both in creating problems and as positive forces for change. In some locations it recognises that local people are dependent on their local habitat to survive and the need to involve them in decisions about conservation projects.

One of the really special things about this non-fiction book for children is the breadth of mini re-wilding case studies included from all over the world. These include: animals, birds, fish, plants, reptiles and insects and a few plants. Each double page spread focuses on certain aspects that affect a creature or plant and some of the actions humans have taken, working together, to re-introduce them to the wild. These provide examples of hope, that despite the threats to our planet there are things we can do to help.

Some examples of the case studies of re-wilding:

  • Flying a light airplane thousands of miles to try and teach Whooping Cranes brought up in captivity about their annual migration routes.
  • Several examples of the impact of building dams on building wildlife are explored. Such as the: toads dependant on the spray and mist from a gorge in Tanzania (East Africa), and the Chinook salmon affected by a dam in the USA.
  • The idea of keystone species is introduced with two main examples. Beavers in England, and their dam building skills that can help to control a river and protect from flooding. The wolves in Yellowstone park, USA and how the removal of a predator can affect the whole ecosystem.

As well as the case studies there are number of pages throughout the book which explore wider issues relating to habitat preservation and conservation. This provides some good pointers to discuss issues related to re-wilding. In the classroom there’s great potential to use this text alongside a fictional re-wilding story (there are a few suggestions at the end of this post).

There is one small area in which this book could perhaps be improved. I would like to see clearer signposting with different colour headings to more clearly visually distinguish the concept/issue pages from the case study pages, making them easier to find. To assist with this a copy of the contents page is attached with the concept/issue pages highlighted in red. 

I highly recommend this detailed and informative text, with realistic and eye-catching illustrations for 10+ years, to be enjoyed at home and in the classroom. Do check out some of the other non-fiction titles by Neon-Squid the publishers.

 

Fictional stories about re-wilding

The Rewilders by Lindsay Littleton .  Read my book review here.

The Last Bear by Hannah Wolf 

Fourteen Wolves: A Re-wilding story by Catherine Barr.  A an illustrated narrative non-fiction book about the returning of wolves to Yelloston Park in 1995.

When Things Went Wild by Tom Mitchell.  For a humorous take on re-wilding

This book is available to Order at Readers that Care

Tiger Skin Rug by Joan Haig – Book Review

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I really enjoyed this story by debut author Joan Haig. It conjured up a real sense of place in both Scotland and India. I love stories that cross genres. This provides an intriguing balance of family drama, real-world adventure and mystery mixed with magical realism. It is filled with some great description and action, with several twists and turns to keep your attention. There are also some important messages about family and what it means to belong. I would highly recommend for children aged 9+ years.

Lal and his brother Dilip have recently moved to Scotland with their mum, dad and Naniji from India. They are homesick. Their parents bought the house from an old lady together with the furniture. One day Dilip finds the tiger skin rug in the living room is real, and can magic into a real talking tiger.

“Something – what was it? – was rippling, across the tiger skin, rippling from underneath it. The ripples were growing…” (p21)

The tiger needs their help to  unravel some secrets and honour an old promise and in return for their help he promised to take them home. This takes them on a journey first to a closed-down auction house near Waterloo station, then to Coventry in search of a professor and onto India, as it turns out the professor is at a conference there.

There is a wonderful part in the first few chapters where local girl Jenny confuses the Scottish for ‘lassie’ (a girls or young woman) with the Indian drink ‘lassi’ (an Indian yogurt drink). The way that the author handles this helps the reader understand what it might be like to be in a new place and to explore ideas relating to belonging.

“My lassi filled me with happiness – cardamom, brown sugar and Indian sea-sides; tangy tastes of things I missed, the sweet and sour of home. Jenny liked her milkshake and gulped it down: maybe she was OK, after all.” (p19)

You do have to take a little leap in the part where they fly on a magic tiger rug all the way to India! But, once in India descriptions make you feel like you are really there. The shift to India has been made easier for the reader by the author’s decision to start the story in Scotland. This means the reader experiences India through the eyes of a child who knows it well but whom is also delighted to return. Which somehow makes it feel less foreign (for those that don’t know India) Though even Lal discovers there he has things to learn about the contrasts between the rich and the poor in India.

The children finally track down Menko Chatterjee (the University professor). and he and the children return to the Indian forest where he grew up. For a truly special ending and a few final twists. Danger still lurks and will the tiger get to complete his mission? You will have to read it to find out!

 

You can read my chat with the author here
You can buy the book from Cranachan publishers here.

 

Tiger Skin Rug – a short chat with author Joan Haig

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Welcome to my  post on the Tiger Skin Rug blog tour.  Joan Haig’s story is an exciting story about two siblings called Lal and Dilip, their new friend Jenny and a magical tiger. The Tiger needs their help to unravel some secrets and help a friend.  It begins in Scotland and during the story they also go to India. It struck me was how vividly the author conjures up a sense of place. From getting a sense of  the features of ‘Greystanes’ house in Scotland to feeling like you were in India.  I I was intrigued to know how the Joan Haig’s  life experience may have influenced her writing.  So I asked her a few questions.
a) What influenced or inspired you to write a story connected to and set in India?

” As a teenager I volunteered for four months with a charity working in an impoverished area of Hyderabad in Northwest India. It’s such a beautiful country with so many extremes. Then, ten years later, I researched and wrote an ethnography – a study of the culture – of the Hindu minority living in Lusaka, in Zambia. The families I worked with over five years told me stories of their migration, and I ended up researching and writing a lot about ideas of ‘home’ and ‘belonging. When I began to develop the characters for Tiger Skin Rug, it felt natural for me to write about a Hindu family moving to a new place.”

b) How did you research/find out about India?

“When I was in India, I travelled across the sub-continent, keeping a journal and writing screeds of letters home, packed with descriptions of the tastes, smells, sounds and colours I encountered. When I wrote Tiger Skin Rug, I revisited my old diaries and letters. The ethnography I wrote was for a PhD thesis – a big piece of work! – and involved a huge amount of research, which all helped in my fiction writing.”

c)  The house called ‘Greystanes’ that the siblings moved to in Scotland is quite distinctive. Was it inspired by ANY buildings you know?

Greystanes’ is based on two houses in Scotland that I know well – one of which is a very beautiful Anglo-Indian bungalow. Some of the descriptions also draw on childhood memories of my aunties’ house and their magical attic. There are a few other buildings across Scotland that fed into my thinking as I was writing – Dunrobin Castle is one.

Here is the author’s description of the house when they first arrive:

“Naniji let out a cackle of unexpected glee. The bungalow wasn’t an ordinary bungalow. It was huge and looming, with a deep verandah wrapped around its side like old houses in India, and a towering front door. The name ‘Greystanes’ was etched onto a pillar and a date – 1836 – chiseled into the stone above. ” p3

I also noticed how the patio doors in Greystanes house were used to good effect. With one character sometimes waiting outside to come in and the conjuring up of expectation and magic with the open or closing of curtains and/or a slight breeze blowing. Here are a couple of examples:
“I pressed in close to the glass. The wisps danced across the tigers skin. It was clear this time; this was no tick of the light….” p22
” The curtain flapped a little as if there was a breeze. I held my breath as the tiger began to shimmer and move.” p38
You can read my blog review here.
You can buy the book published by CranAchan Publishing here

Caged – a wordless picture book that makes you think

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I am a big fan of wordless picture books so was delighted to be given the opportunity to review Caged, written and illustrated by Duncan Annand and publishers Tiny Owl. Through simple but very effective drawings it explores issues of greed, freedom, our connection to nature, and the courage shown by individuals to help others. It is a book that would be great to share, either as a group or as individual’s that then feed back their responses. I also felt it might work particular well with children aged 9+years. Not having the right group of kids myself  I asked Shenaz Bagshaw to help. She shared the book with a couple of groups of year 5’s at St James CE Primary School in Northampton. The children loved the book. One of the main reasons was: “because it makes you think”. This is one of the clever things about this wordless picture book, it actively invites the reader to try and work out what is happening and to question.

The pictures are a wonderful combination of line drawings in black and white. These contrast with a single blue bird and the multi-coloured parrots. Some things the children said when Shenaz ‘read’ the first part of the story with them were:

  • “Why is the bird blue, and everything else just outlined?”
  • “The man’s clothes look like Willy Wonker”

From these two comments there are so many things you could explore and discuss further.