ALMOST GONE

This new entry in the Let’s-Read-and-Find-Out series features some 20 animals that face extinction, along with a couple of handfuls that represent actually extinct species and some that are fighting back, illustrated with Jenkins’s trademark textured collages. Each animal (with the very irritating exception of the leopard on the cover) is accompanied by a brief text block that locates it geographically and estimates the number remaining and provides a brief description of its basic characteristics and the circumstances of its peril. A distribution map at the end gives some sense of worldwide scope and standard adult measurements for each animal. Animals represented include Lonesome George (the last Abington Island Tortoise), the Coelacanth, the Northern Right Whale, the Moa (in the “Gone Forever” category) and the Whooping Crane (“Coming Back”). Although the breadth both geographically and zoologically is as complete as the 40-page picture-book format can allow, with the exception of an introduction, little attempt is made to contextualize the global dimensions of extinction and its effects on biodiversity—and why readers should be concerned. (Picture book/nonfiction. 5-9)