Gone Forever: An Alphabet Of Extinct Animals [Hardcover]

Sandra Markle (Author), William Markle (Author), Felipe Davalos (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1998 | Age Level: 5 and up

Creatures of all types and sizes have been vanishing at an alarming rate. Here, science teacher and writer Sandra Markle and her husband, William, present twenty-six animals that have become extinct in recorded history, one for each letter of the alphabet -- from aurochs, the wild cattle that appear in cave paintings, to Burchell's zebra, which roamed the South African grasslands until the mid-1800s. Along the way we also meet the elephant bird from Madagascar, the Barbary lion, which the Romans captured for their sports arenas, and the Xerces blue butterfly, which disappeared from California in 1941. Felipe Davalos has painted a stunning portrait of each of these animals as it appeared before it was gone forever.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Kindergarten-Grade 4AA mixed bag. Vibrant, full-page acrylic illustrations bring to life an interesting assortment of extinct insects, reptiles, birds, fish, and mammals, most of which are not described in standard titles. These creatures span continents and time periods; the blackfin cisco was last seen about 30 years ago, while others, such as the elephant bird, have been gone for thousands of years. Humans, primarily hunters, shoulder the blame for many, but not all of the disappearances; some of the causes for decline remain unknown today. The alphabetic arrangement is erratic: the great auk represents G, but the Palestinian painted frog is the entry for F and the Cuban yellow bat stands in for Y. Latin names are not given, and there is no index. The information, generally confined to one succinct paragraph, provides an adequate glance at some unusual creatures and successfully highlights notable characteristics. Pair this book with Dorothy Patent's Back to the Wild (Harcourt, 1997) or Cristina Kessler's All the King's Animals (Boyds Mills, 1995) for positive looks at how some species have been saved from near death. Or use it to supplement some of the other solid titles on this topic such as Alexandra Wright's Will We Miss Them? (Charlesbridge, 1992) and Marjory Facklam's And Then There Was One (Little, Brown, 1990).AMarilyn Payne Phillips, University City Public Library, MO
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

From the last auroch to the last Burchell's zebra, this handsome alphabet book presents an extinct animal for every letter of the alphabet. Through a careful selection of animals that includes insects, fish, amphibians, birds, and mammals, the Markles give an international and historical perspective to extinct species, and introduce the complex and varied reasons behind extinction. A brief paragraph accompanies each full-page (sometimes full- spread) portrait of the featured animal; Dvalos often includes visual information about its habitat in the meticulously rendered paintings. Some stories will be familiar, e.g., the passenger pigeon killed for sport, but others will be new: the Gull Island vole of Long Island, New York, which became extinct when the soldiers from the Spanish-American War dug up its habitat, or Captain Maclear's rat of the Christmas Islands, which was destroyed by vicious ship rats and the diseases they brought. A good starting point for any inquiry into extinct and endangered species. (Picture book. 7-11) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 5 and up
  
• Hardcover: 40 pages
• Publisher: Atheneum; 1st edition (April 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0689319614
• ISBN-13: 978-0689319617
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 9.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,675,717 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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."