Lights Out: A Movement to Help Migrating Birds

Lights Out: A Movement to Help Migrating Birds - 48 pages

Jessica Stremer, Bonnie Pang (Illustrator)

Summary (From Goodreads)

Based on the real-life Lights Out movement, this inspirational picture book shows how even the smallest of actions, like flipping a switch, can make a big difference in helping migrating birds.

When the seasons change and it’s time for a flock of sparrows to move on, a map made of stars guides their way. But when they reach the city, light pollution masks the map and confuses the birds. One sparrow becomes separated from the flock. A girl rescues the lost sparrow and decides to take action so this doesn’t happen again.

She rallies a group of friends, and together they encourage people all over the city to help the sparrows by turning off their lights at night. But will the city be ready by the time the flock return?

Review

A nice story (rooted in real life, of course!) with a good amount of helpful information for anyone looking to learn more and take action.  The additional information is explained in a manner accessible to younger readers, so I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in nature, the environment, and conservation!  

The Dragon Behind the Glass - Emily Voigt

The Dragon Behind the Glass - Emily Voigt - 336 pages

Fish. The final frontier.

...Okay, not really.  But seriously, the history of fish tank fishies is really interesting stuff, especially as told by Emily as she travels all over the world in search of the elusive wild Super Red Arowana, a fish whose domesticated counterpart sells for tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars to collectors around the world.  She Indiana Jones's her way through remote and urban jungles on a quest to find this primordial fish that langors in the tanks of the rich and privilaged, but has been fished to near extinction in the wild due to high demand.

There's something fascinating in her quest and the stories she hears from modern day adventurers.  Some are breeding fish for profit, some are travelling to find elusive new species of every kind for fame, fortune, and maybe just the fun of it, and some are worried about the ecological implications of humankind's obsession with caging the wild.  Maybe ecology is really at the root of this story; by the end, even I was feeling cynical about the possibility of righting our wrongs as the apex of the food chain (whether we're eating our prey or cramming it in a glass bowl for entertainment purposes).  Species altered by the breeding hands of people are no longer comparable to their wild counterparts; is an animal extinct if it only exists in our living rooms and hotel lobbies?