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Except for the final, and fun, picture book, each of these first four show the love of family.
I don’t think I’ll ever go to our zoo and observe the orangutans the same way again. Once again Eliot
Schrefer has written a story that brings poignancy to the causes of primates
world wide. He began with Bonobos in Endangered, following with the book
Endangered about chimpanzees. This third book in the trilogy moves to
Indonesia, and the loss of habitat of orangutans.
Smuggled into the U.S. for his son John, young
Raja soon becomes close as a brother. And sadly, he also becomes imprisoned.
John’s parents have divorced, John and his mother have moved far away, needing
to leave Raja behind under the care of his father. In two years, the father has
lost his lucrative job with a company that has been destroying jungle habitat
in Indonesia (the habitat of orangutans) in order to plant palm trees to produce palm oil. He has lost his home. A place must
be found for Raja, and the only place that agrees to take him is a roadside zoo.
John travels to say goodbye, but when he discovers the horrible conditions of
that zoo, he kidnaps Raja. This book, like the others, keeps tension high, and
from this time on, it becomes higher. How John with the help of a caring vet
works out Raja’s plight is a story that seems a bit unbelievable. Everything
works out, although including more than one harrowing moment. The overreaching theme is consideration of
wild animals’ needs, and the fact that people rarely care about them when it
includes profit. The book is divided into five parts, each with an appropriate
quote about animal lives, and a brief introduction before the story begins
again. The introduction follows an orangutan baby’s thoughts and parallels their
plight even as we read the fictional story of John and Raja. It’s a thoughtful
book, one that will connect with kids perhaps even more than the others because
it’s set in the U.S.
It’s time for Carnival and
Malaika’s mother had promised to send money for a costume. She recently has
moved far away to Canada to make more money. Sadly, the money hasn’t come.
Malaika is upset and her grandmother pulls out her own old costume. Malaika becomes
even more upset, throws it off and runs out into the village. She settles down,
and asks a tailor lady who gives her a scrap bag of wonderfully colorful and
shiny cloth. The creativity begins, with Malaika and her Grandmother making a
costume to love. Nadia Hohn offers a small
glossary at the beginning of the book with words included like “Moko Jumbie, a
stilt walker of West African origin whose height was traditionally associated
with the ability to see evil.” Whether
reading as a book about family and community, or for a celebration of Carnival,
you’ll love the colorful collage illustrations and the beautiful facial
expressions, especially Malaika’s.