The Race to Save the Lord God Bird (The Boston Globe-Horn Book Award (Awards)) (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "DR. JAMES VAN REMSEN PULLS OPEN A WOODEN DRAWER AND HANDS ME AN IVORY-billed Woodpecker..." (more)
Key Phrases: sound mirror, rarest bird, bird club, United States, Chicago Mill, Jim Tanner (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 6 Up–This meticulously researched labor of love uses drama, suspense, and mystery to tell the story of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, the first modern endangered species. Its story is also the story of America, its economics and its politics, its settlement and its development, its plume hats and its environmental protection laws. In 1800, the large and impressive woodpecker lived in the southeastern United States, from Texas to the Carolinas and as far north as Indiana. By 1937, it could be found on only one tract of land in northeastern Louisiana. Its last confirmed sighting was in Cuba in 1987. Hoose skillfully introduces each individual involved through interesting, historically accurate scenes. Readers meet John James Audubon as well as less familiar people who played a part in the Ivory-bill story as artists, collectors, ornithologists, scientists, and political activists. Sharp, clear, black-and-white archival photos and reproductions appear throughout. The author's passion for his subject and high standards for excellence result in readable, compelling nonfiction, particularly appealing to young biologists and conservationists.–Laurie von Mehren, Cuyahoga County Public Library, Brecksville, OH
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Gr. 5-8. Hoose details the history of the Ivory-billed woodpecker through the lives and work of those who studied it, painted it, and tried to save it from extinction as settlers and loggers reduced its habitat. Increasingly threatened by those who would kill it for sport, for its feathers, or paradoxically because its rarity made it valuable to collectors, the woodpecker found protectors in a growing number of scientists and bird lovers who took up the challenge of observing the bird and attempting to save the dwindling species. Once a distinctive inhabitant of wilderness areas in the southeastern U.S. (with a related variety in Cuba), the Ivory bill has evidently died out as a result of loss of habitat. A great deal of original research went into the writing of this book, as evidenced in the text and the detailed, discursive source notes that are appended along with a time line and glossary. Science, economics, and social and timely political history are intertwined in this precise, chronological record. Profusely illustrated with black-and-white photos. Carolyn Phelan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Reading level: Young Adult
  
• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 1st edition (August 11, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374361738
• ISBN-13: 978-0374361730
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 8.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #226,734 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #36 in	Books > Teens > Science & Technology > Ecology
  #76 in	Books > Children's Books > Animals > Birds > Nonfiction

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best books of 2004, January 21, 2005

By	Meggie (Illinois) - See all my reviews

An exceptionally well documented and highly readable book about the ivory billed woodpecker. Though the reader knows how the book will end, one becomes so attached to this bird that when the last bird's home has been destroyed the reader has a true understanding of the word extinct. Don't miss this one.

20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended survey of the process of extinction, November 10, 2004

By	Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

Originally designed and published as a children's book for teenage readers, Philip Hoose's The Race To Save The Lord God Bird is also confidently recommended an ideal introduction for an adult readership as a very highly recommended survey of the process of extinction and changing attitudes towards understanding and protecting species and habitats. From James J. Audubon's early efforts to the plume wars to early collectors of birds, The Race To Save The Lord God Bird documents the ravaging of the bird world around the turn of the century - and the slow realizations of bird extinction processes which evolved from there.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Race to Save the Lord God Bird, September 16, 2004

By	Curious City Kirsten Cappy "Curious City" (Portland, Me) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Phil Hoose is a stunning storyteller. From his descriptions of the Native Americans who wore the heads of this woodpecker around their neck in hopes of "drilling holes through their enemies" to the collectors of the 1800's who shot the bird in the 100's to mount in their home-spun museums to the ornithologists who struggled through endless swamp land just to photograph this beautiful bird--Hoose captures not only the magnificence of this bird, but America's mad march towards progress and the sacrifices we made. You need not be a birder to be captured by this brilliant weaving of ecology and history. Despite the ivory bill woodpecker's apparent extinction from the US swamps, this is not a hopeless story, by any means. The fight to save the Lord God Bird taught us innumerable lessons about habitat, preservation and reverence. A compelling read for ANYONE over age 11.