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Poems by Rob Jackson
Illustrated by Laura Jacobsen
Review from Booklist
Gr. 2-4. Biologist Rob Jackson shares both his knowledge of animals and his way with words in this collection of 18 short, witty poems. A typical selection zeroes in on a particular species and comments on some aspect of its appearance or behavior. Though Jackson uses rhythm and rhyme effectively throughout the book, the verse forms vary a bit from poem to poem. Rhyming couplets abound. "Manners" is a limerick: "When the archerfish first learned to spit / His parents were instantly split / One sent him to bed / But the other one said, / 'Just look at the bug junior hit!'" Four appended pages called "Fun Facts" carry an illustrated paragraph about each of a dozen featured species. Younger readers may find the vocabulary more challenging in this section, which ideally would be shared with an adult. Appealing colored-pencil artwork reflects the light tone of the verse. Books of animal poems are not hard to find, but few so successfully integrate zoology with amusing verse. Carolyn Phelan
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"The urgency to act now isn't apocalyptic. Calls for the earth's demise have come and gone throughout history, especially in recent decades. . . . and we're still here. It is entirely possible, of course, that this decade will be our last, but I'm betting that it won't be, that we and the earth will still be here in a hundred years and in a thousand. In consequence, the stewardship and vision that we show today will help determine the type of world that our descendants inherit. This book isn't about the end of the world, it's about the middle of it, the mundane middle of our daily lives and the choices that we consciously and unconsciously make." —Rob Jackson Writing especially for people who've tuned out the environmental debate, Rob Jackson persuasively argues that we're at a crucial turning point in environmental history, where choices we make now will determine the quality of life into the unforeseeable future. Laying out the scientific facts in plain language and with flashes of humor, he shows how the escalation of population growth and resource consumption in the twentieth century caused problems from ozone depletion to global warming, habitat destruction, and biodiversity loss. At the same time, however, he highlights ongoing solutions to these problems and ways in which we can create a sustainable future for subsequent generations and all life on earth. His urgent message is not that we've already failed, but that we can succeed.
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