Kakapo Rescue by Sy Montgomery

Montgomery, Sy Kakapo Rescue: Saving the World’s Strangest Parrot, photographs by Nic Bishop.  72 p. Houghton Mifflin, 2010.  $18.00.  Content: G.  There are only 88 kakpoes left in the whole world, but Lynne Gibson, Catherine Tudhope and their team are striving to increase that number with every chick they midwife into the world.  With an effort that started back in the 1950’s, there is fragile hope for restoring the flightless bird to healthy populations.  Montgomery and Bishop carefully chronicle one year in the great kakapo rescue – and detail the great lengths some caring humans will go to in order to save one of thousands of species humans so casually wiped from existence.  I’ve said it before, but Houghton’s Scientists in the Fields series is the best look at current scientific explorations in print.  The scientists are all living and active, the topics are immediate.  Budding scientists should be encouraged to explore the many facets of this field and discover the immense possibilities of future careers.  The topics are mainly ecological, so some balance for laboratory work might be recommended, but otherwise, the whole series is a must have purchase.  EL, MS, HS – ESSENTIAL. Cindy, Library-Teacher.