Nonfiction Review #2

Book Review For:

Montgomery, Sy. 2006. QUEST FOR THE TREE KANGAROO: AN EXPEDITION TO THE CLOUD FORREST OF NEW GUINEA. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. ISBN 9780375841989

            Anyone who likes animals, relishes a good adventure, has asthma or other disabilities, or has extraordinary interests will enjoy this book. Colorful pictures of rare animals and plants indigenous to New Guinea and pictures of various people traveling with and engaging with the expedition team enhance every single page. Subheadings are in bold, capital letters and captions accompany the pictures, and colored maps are present, making it entertaining and easy for the reader to follow along.

 

            Sy Montgomery, the author, and Nic Bishop, the photographer, documented this adventure firsthand, so the information, along with the pictures to back it up, seems highly authentic.

            Lisa Dabek, the scientific leader of the expedition team, is inspiring to many individuals in light of how she overcame her asthma problems, ignored teachers’ criticism of her obsession with animals while she was growing up, and led the team to do exactly what other “experts” called impossible. On page 74, she even gives advice to children who are interested in studying wild animals.

            The author encourages readers to think about various aspects of a scientific field study, specifically by encouraging them to convert the body temperature of a tree kangaroo from Fahrenheit to Celcius and including a quote from Lisa in which she explains that studying wildlife involves science, math, art, and politics.

            Educators could have students work in groups to plan imaginary field trip studies of their own in which they could name the animal they are studying, where they would have to travel, the means of their travel, and their supply lists. Also, other endangered animals and the scientists who have studied them and aided their cause could be explored. Best of all, an educator can arrange to have their students correspond with children in Papua New Guinea through www.zoo.org, a site of the Woodland Park Zoo (QUEST FOR THE TREE KANGAROO: AN EXPEDITION TO THE CLOUD FORREST OF NEW GUINEA, 2006).

            This book has won the 2007 NCTE Orbis Pictus Award and is a 2007 Robert F. Sibert Honor book (“Quest for the Tree Kangaroo: An Expedition to the Cloud Forrest of New Guinea”, n.d.). A Booklist review states,” As usual, Bishop's color photographs are exemplary and extend the excitement in stunning close-ups of creatures and of the team at work (Engberg, n.d.)”, and a School Library Journal review claims, “The book's fascinating glimpses into a little-explored region will hold the attention of anyone interested in unusual creatures and the efforts to study them (Piehl, n.d.).”

References

Engberg, Gillian. "Editorial Reviews from Booklist." Amazon.com., accessed October 30, 2013, http://www.amazon.com/Quest-Tree-Kangaroo-Expedition-Scientists/dp/B005EP2T0U.

 

Montgomery, Sy. 2006. QUEST FOR THE TREE KANGAROO: AN EXPEDITION TO THE CLOUD FORREST OF NEW GUINEA. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.

Piehl, Kathy. "Editorial Reviews from School Library Journal." Amazon.com., accessed October 30, 2013, http://www.amazon.com/Quest-Tree-Kangaroo-Expedition-Scientists/dp/B005EP2T0U.

"Quest for the Tree Kangaroo: An Expedition to the Cloud Forrest of New Guinea." Juniorlibraryguild.com. Junior Library Guild, accessed October 28, 2013, http://www.juniorlibraryguild.com/books/view.dT?isbn=0618496416.