Gone Wild an Endanged Animal Alphabet

Gone Wild An Endangered Animal Alphabet by Dave McLimans
2007 Caldecott Honor Book

I often wish books would give more information about the art work. The bold graphic illustrations in this book look like papercuts to me, but I am not entirely sure how they are made.

There is an introduction, explaining a little about endangered species and the different classifications of this (Critically Endangered, Endangered, and Vulnerable)

Then there is an alphabet. Each LETTER is made into a picture of an endangered animal. M is for Prairie Sphinx Moth and the middle of the letter M is made of the wings and body of the moth. L is for Snow Leopard and the letter L is spotted like a leopard and has a claw on the "foot" of the L.   It's a little hard to describe! On each page there is also a box with a smaller picture of the endangered animal and some basic information: Class, Habitat, Range, Threats, Status.

Then, at the very back of the book there are 5 pages with additional REALLY INTERESTING information about each animal (one short completely fascinating paragraph per animal) and some resources listing further reading and organizations that help endangered animals. This is where you learn stuff like: "The boa is a mighty hunter and has heat sensitive pits around its mouth enabling it to hunt for warm-blooded prey in complete darkness." or  "Thanks to its large webbed feet, the blue duck can move easily through swift rapids and climb over large boulders."

My 6 year old didn't like this book. She thought the ABC animals "weren't really pictures."

I also wasn't quite satisfied with it. I especially didn't like the choice of the more interesting info about the animals being pulled out and listed separately. I can see why, for purely graphic reasons, it's nice to have the bold black ABC animals floating on an uncluttered white page. But I doubt many people get to reading the dense text at the back of the book. I found the information absolutely amazing, and still had trouble sticking with it for 5 pages. I would have preferred to have the text about the animals included the first time around.