Finding Home [Hardcover]

Sandra Markle (Author), Alan Marks (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 5 and up | Grade Level: K and up

Sandra Markle and Alan Marks team up to chronicle the challenges faced by a mother koala: protecting herself and her joey from a raging bushfire, and finding food and a new home after their home range is destroyed. Based on a true story. Back matter includes facts about koalas, an author's note about the real-life koala that survived two bushfires, and resources for learning more about koalas and their habitat. A Junior Library Guild selection.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Based on the true story of a koala that survived multiple bushfires and wandered into a residential area, this picture book, narrated in dramatic free verse, tells a gripping story of animal survival. The words are immediate and filled with sensory detail: “The air smells of eucalyptus leaves and smoke.” When flames lick through the forest, a mother koala shields her baby from the fire, and after the charred branches cool, she leaves—with her baby on her back—in search of a meal. Her hunt for “just one tree that is right” is long and dangerous, particularly after she finds herself among humans and houses. But concerned people block traffic on a busy highway and guide the mother and baby to a safe wild eucalyptus grove. As in A Mother’s Journey (2005) and Little Lost Bat (2006), Markle’s smooth, elegant poetry and Marks’ expressive, realistic mixed-media images give a strong sense of the animals’ terror and the mother’s intense bond with her child and show how humans can protect the increasing numbers of wildlife that are pushed by shrinking habitats into our neighborhoods. Koala facts and suggestions for further research close this powerful title. Grades K-3. --Gillian Engberg

About the Author

Sandra Markle has written over 70 nonfiction books for young readers, including Little Lost Bat, A Mother's Journey (a Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards Honor Book), and her Outside and Inside series (Atheneum). She lives in Amberley, New Zealand.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 5 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Charlesbridge Publishing (January 15, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1580891225
• ISBN-13: 978-1580891226
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.8 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,140,675 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #96 in Books > Children's Books > Travel & Cultures > Explore the World > Australia & Oceania

More About the Author

SANDRA MARKLE

Sandra Markle is the author of more than 200 books for children, such as A Mother's Journey (Charlesbridge, 2006), How Many Baby Pandas (Walker, 2009), The Case of the Vanishing Golden Frogs (Millbrook, 2011), Butterfly Tree (Peachtree Publishing, 2011). She has won numerous awards for this work, including Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Book, Cooperative Children's Book Center Choices, NSTA Outstanding Science Trade Book, SB& F finalist, John Burroughs List of Nature Books for Young Readers, Junior Library Guild Selection, Orbis Pictus Recommended Book, Charlotte Zolotow Award, and MORE.
She was honoured with the title of "Best of Children's Non-Fiction" Georgia Author Of The Year award five times and was named one of 1999's Women of the Year by Women in Technology International for her contributions to science and technology.

In addition to her books, Sandra Markle has developed science specials for CNN and PBS. She is also noted for developing On-Line Expedition: Antarctica, one of the first on-line educational programs and continued adding further on-line reports from Antarctica while working on book projects in 1996 and 1999 as a grantee for the National Science Foundation's Artists and Writers Program.

Reviewers have heaped praise on Markle's books, including:
Outside and Inside Bats "The author presents a particularly felicitous accord of words and pictures in an outstanding science book for the primary grades." The Horn Book Magazine
Outside and Inside Alligators "This newest installment of the Outside and Inside series adds another fine book to a top-notch series." Bookselling This Week, a Kid's Pick of the Lists
Outside and Inside Dinosaurs It's like sitting down with a dinosaur expert who happens to be a great teacher." The Horn Book Magazine

Sandra Markle remains proudest, though, of the praise she has received in fan mail from children. She's happy to fulfill the requests of the young readers that urge her to "please write more."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars This book was a solid "WOW" story from start to finish!, May 24, 2009

By 

D. Fowler "Dragonfly77" (Vermont) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Finding Home (Hardcover)

A hot spring breeze tinged with the smell of smoke swept through the trees, waking the koala. September was springtime in New South Wales, Australia. She could smell the smoke and her nine-month-old female joey climbed on her back. Animals began to flee the fire, but she was much slower than they were. The birds flew above and beyond the smoke. "Kangaroos and wallabies thunder past their tree." It was a mad dash to escape, but the slow-moving koala and her joey had no where to go but up, hoping to escape the inferno. "Fire sweeps though the forest-crackling, snapping roaring." Up and up she climbed.

The koala did not escape unscathed and had a "burned patched on her back." Her joey, however, was safe because she had cuddled her between her chest and the tree trunk. The forest was charred and she had to move on. She was in need of food and now had to travel. The carried her joey on her back until she became too heavy to carry and she shook him off. Her search would pit her against a dog and land her in the midst of civilization. They were as surprised to see her and her baby as much as she was to see them. The crowds would gather to see them. Would they find food and a forever home to live in?

This book was a solid "WOW" story from start to finish. The story, based on the real life adventures of Cinders, a koala who "survived two bushfires," was fascinating. The marvelous art work makes it even more amazing. There is a brief biography of Cinders in the back of the book and some additional recommended books and web sites are listed. This book, understandably, has been nominated for a Red Clover award in Vermont.