Gone Wild

Gone Wild. ISBN 0-8027-9563-3. David McLimans. 2006. Caldecott Honor. Ages 4-8. Nonfiction.

Gone Wild, by David McLimans, is a nonfiction picture book that goes through the alphabet, matching an endangered species with each letter. The author explains in the introduction that he chose animals that would fit with the letters. Each letter has been made to look like the animal described on the page. We also learn that there are over 5,000 animals facing extinction, and that the cause of this is people taking over the land that these animals need to support their lives, or their natural habitat. There are three statuses that are explained: ciritcally endangered, endangered, and vulnerable. Each page features a letter of the alphabet, representing a different animal, also giving its class, its habitat, where it is found in the world, threats, and its status. The illustrations are drawn with simple, yet bold, black lines, and are on a white background. This really makes the letters pop out to the reader, and helps to focus on the features of each, unique animal. The last pages in this book are dedicated to describing each animal in greater detail, with a small picture of each accompanying the description.

This is a book that would open the eyes of the students to the many different species of plants and animals that we aren't even aware of that are facing extinction. Again, we learn that the reasons these animals are disappearing are man-made. In the classroom, I would hope this would encourage the students to take some sort of action, or at least plant an idea in their heads about how they should live their lives as responsible, and environmentally aware people. Students tend to be very interested in animals, so this book should be fascinating to all. We could also do an art project, focusing on making different letters look like different animals, ourselves.