Jaguarundi [Hardcover]

Virginia Hamilton (Author), Floyd Cooper (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 4 and up

A portrait of endangered rainforest animals of South America describes their struggles to survive and find suitable habitats as they journey from the pineapple fields and cattle ranches that were once their home.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

When Rundi Jaguarundi and Coati Coatimundi, creatures of a threatened rain forest, decide to journey north in search of a more congenial habitat, some animals caution them to stay-"Adapt is what we must do," warns the Big Brown Bat. But no matter how far Rundi and Coati travel, they find more hunters, houses and fences, and Rundi wonders if "north must be farther on." In a preface Hamilton (The People Could Fly) suggests that "the story parallels humans who escape their homelands in search of better, safer lives" and that it includes "a classic symbolism of fleeing North." Despite the weighty themes and despite Cooper's (Brown Honey and Broomwheat Tea) sometimes strikingly handsome artwork and arresting cover, this book is not up to Hamilton's usual standards. The 17 animals included are described in terms of encyclopedia-style tidbits, and their stilted conversations can sound like tracts (Coati and Rundi "go off to a shady spot among the spiny bromeliads"; says Rundi: "The forest canopy is going. I'm afraid we wild animals will go with it."). An endnote profiles each of the cited animals, with special attention given to the plights of the endangered. Ages 5-12.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Kindergarten-Grade 4-An original fantasy that "introduces young readers to a variety of real rain forest animals." As the ecosystem is gradually being tamed by humans who clear the land to build homes, ranches, and farms, Rundi Jaguarundi decides to move north where the great Rio Bravo flows and the forest canopy is still said to exist. He invites Coatimundia and other animals to accompany him. Big Brown Bat decides to stay, advising the others to learn to adapt, because there will always be danger, always be change. Jaguar announces he will not give up his hunting ground-it's him or them. Only Coatimundi decides to go with his friend. When they reach the Rio Bravo, it, too, has been claimed by man, so they continue on separately. Eventually Rundi settles down to raise a family. A picture glossary lists and defines the common animals found in Central and South America. Cooper's paintings convey the misty heat of the tropical habitat. The animals are realistically depicted, but the story and pictures do take liberties with the animal groupings-prey and predator stand together. The strength of this book is in its smooth presentation of cogent reasons for preserving the rain forest and its dwellers. A valuable curriculum item, which will fill many needs.
Karen K. Radtke, Milwaukee Public Library
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4 and up
  
• Hardcover: 1 pages
• Publisher: Scholastic; 1 edition (January 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0590473662
• ISBN-13: 978-0590473668
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 8.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,542,401 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Virginia Esther Hamilton was born, as she said, "on the outer edge of the Great Depression," on March 12, 1934. The youngest of five children of Kenneth James and Etta Belle Perry Hamilton, Virginia grew up amid a large extended family in Yellow Springs, Ohio. The farmlands of southwestern Ohio had been home to her mother's family since the late 1850s, when Virginia's grandfather, Levi Perry, was brought into the state as an infant via the Underground Railroad.

Virginia graduated at the top of her high-school class and received a full scholarship to Antioch College in Yellow Springs. In 1956, she transferred to the Ohio State University in Columbus and majored in literature and creative writing. She moved to New York City in 1958, working as a museum receptionist, cost accountant, and nightclub singer, while she pursued her dream of being a published writer. She studied fiction writing at the New School for Social Research under Hiram Haydn, one of the founders of Atheneum Press.

It was also in New York that Virginia met poet Arnold Adoff. They were married in 1960. Arnold worked as a teacher, and Virginia was able to devote her full attention to writing, at least until daughter Leigh was born in 1963 and son Jaime in 1967. In 1969, Virginia and Arnold built their "dream home" in Yellow Springs, on the last remaining acres of the old Hamilton/Perry family farm, and settled into a life of serious literary work and achievement.

In her lifetime, Virginia wrote and published 41 books in multiple genres that spanned picture books and folktales, mysteries and science fiction, realistic novels and biography. Woven into her books is a deep concern with memory, tradition, and generational legacy, especially as they helped define the lives of African Americans. Virginia described her work as "Liberation Literature." She won every major award in youth literature.