Synopses & Reviews
People call it and#147;The Ghost of the Mountain,and#8221; for those who live among snow leopards almost never see one. Beautiful spotted coats conceal these elusive cats in their rocky, high-altitude habitatand#151;a place where temperatures are often cold enough to freeze human tears. A thick, long tail for balance helps snow leopards spring at their prey from great distancesand#151;prey that is often three times its own size. Slinking along the Mongolian mountain ridges, the snow leopards are invisibleand#151;and almost impossible to study.
But that doesnand#8217;t deter scientist Tom McCarthy, Conservation Director of the Seattle-based Snow Leopard Trust, or his many colleagues from dedicating their livesand#8217; work to the study and protection of this seldom-seen creature. And it doesnand#8217;t stop Sy Montgomery and Nic Bishop from packing their bags in order to join Tom on a trek to Mongolia, where they hope to learn more about this magical cat, a cat who doesnand#8217;t give up its secrets easily.
It will take endurance and persistence to climb the dusty mountain trails, hope of a snow leopard sighting rising and falling with each new summit. It will take practice and experience to lay humane leghold snares, collect scat samples, and set up motion-triggered cameras. It will take patience, focusand#151;and yes, loveand#151;to dedicate a lifetime learning more about this little-understood creature. But thatand#8217;s the only way the Snow Leopard Trust can protect their charges, before the snow leopard truly becomes nothing but a ghost of the mountain.
With a dazzling, as-it-happens narrative and spectacular photographs, Sy Montgomery and Nic Bishop bring Mongolia up close for readers everywhere.
Review
"Profiles of scientists and ranchers, discussions of other animals of the Pantanal, Bishop's typically electric photography, and a few tense moments in the wild combine to create a full, fascinating picture of tapirs and one place they call home, as well as the work being done to protect them."
and#8212;Publishers Weekly, starred review
"Chapters about the team's day-by-day experiences, written in a lively, first-person voice, include memorable detail. . . A splendid addition to an exemplary series."
and#8212;Kirkus, starred review
"This contribution to the Scientists in the Field series seamlessly blends eloquent text and vivid images to spotlight the gentle tapir and those field scientists whose lives are committed to conserve animal species for the sake of our environment and our humanity."
and#8212;Booklist, starred review
"Bishop's captivating photographs, paired with Montgomery's narrative, not only call attention to a lesser-known endangered species, but also expose readers to the working conditions, obstacles, and emotions experienced by passionate scientists in the field."
and#8212;School Library Journal, starred review
"[The book] offers a clear-eyed picture of the challenges and the joys of pioneering fieldwork."
and#8212;Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
"Montgomery's dramatic account of tracking the elusive animals is interspersed with scientific information about the various tapir species, samples of Medici's data on tapir movements, explanations of the technologies used in the research, and discussions of Brazilian ranching culture."
and#8212;The Horn Book Magazine
Review
Immediately captures attention with a fresh, engaging style that turns scientific study into a page-turning mystery. . . . A fascinating topic meets a talented storyteller.” Booklist, ALA, Starred Review
Montgomery's personal enthusiasm and knowledge extend nicely into the book's informative concluding elements that include fast facts, a glossary of Bengali phrases, a list of related organizations, and comments on the photographs." School Library Journal
Review
The writer and photographer of this exemplary description of science field work accompanied researcher Lisa Dabek on an expedition high in New Guinea's mountains to study tree kangaroos and promote the conservation of this elusive and endangered species. With early references to Dr. Seuss and hobbits, Montgomery connects the world of the young reader to this beautiful, distant place. She paces her narrative well, alternating focus on people and place, keeping the reader engaged and concerned about the expedition's success. As in other books in the series, she describes how local schoolchildren are involved. Her detailed account highlights scientific work habits, including extensive planning, necessary patience, careful observations and recording and the contiunal questions that arise. One unfortunately flipped picture notwithstanding, Bishop's photographs, shots of the expedition members, strinking close-ups of flora and fauna including the sought-for kangaroo and lush, green cloud forest scenes, are beautifully reproduced. From the maps in front to the concluding suggestions for young enthusiasts, information about the language, and index, this is another commendable title from an experienced team.
Publishers Weekly, Starred
Another beautifully illustrated entry in the Scientists in the field series... Montgomery gives a chronological, sometimes moment-by-moment account of the challenging climb into the remote cloud forest...[giving] an unusually strong, visceral sense of the work and cooperation fieldwork entails and the scope and uniqueness of theis particular mission...As usual, Bishop's color photographs are exemplary and extend the excitement in close-ups of creatures and of the team at work.
Booklist, ALA, Starred Review
Montgomery's friendliness and curiosity set the tone...Bishop's photography is, as always, outstanding...Dabek's advice to young naturalists...[is a] useful addition.
Horn Book
In this fact-packed adventure with stunning photos, readers joins scientists in New Guinea to radio-collar the way-cute tree-dweller.
People Magazine
"[M]eet the amazing scientists who track these elusive animals." Midwest Book Review November 2007 Midwest Book Review
Review
This attractive and informative offering is an intelligent reportage of science as it happens.
School Library Journal, Starred
Laced with captivating color photos and capped with an array of facts and resources about bears of all sorts, this pared-down version of the adult title should be irresistible to bear lovers and budding naturalists alike.
Kirkus Reviews
This is a natural...for young environmentalists and animal lovers, as well as readers who just like a good science mystery.
The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
Review
"A stimulating text and vibrant, full-color photographs entice readers on this trip down the Amazon... A non-fiction title that inspires as it informs." School Library Journal, Starred
"[Montgomery] will not only leave readers feeling as if they'd been to the Amazon and met one of its odder-looking residents, but well equipped to pursue a newly kindled interest in rainforest conservation." Kirkus Reviews, Starred
"A captivating travelogue...children with a taste for adventure will enjoy this enthusiastic field trip to the rainforest." Booklist, ALA, Starred Review
Synopsis
The Tapir Scientist introduces young readers to one of the weirdest and most fascinating animals on the planet and recounts the extraordinary work of the dedicated scientists trying toand#160;save them.
Synopsis
If you've never seen a lowland tapir, you're not alone. Most of the people who live near tapir habitat in Brazil's vast Pantanal ("the Everglades on steroids") haven't seen the elusive snorkel-snouted mammal, either. In this arresting nonfiction picture book, Sibert winners Sy Montgomery and Nic Bishop join a tapir-finding expedition led by the Brazilian field scientist Pati Medici. Aspiring scientists will love the immediate, often humorous "you are there" descriptions of fieldwork, and gadget lovers will revel in the high-tech science at play, from microchips to the camera traps that capture the "soap opera" of tapir life.
Synopsis
If youve never seen a lowland tapir, youre not alone. Most of the people who live near its home in Brazil, the worlds largest freshwater wetland known as the Pantanal, have never seen one, either. Resembling a diminutive hornless rhino with a long, flexible snout it uses like a snorkel and four hoofed feet, these shy loners are hard to find, which makes them hard to save—and the tapir is rapidly disappearing. While many of us may never see a tapir in the wild, well miss them when theyre gone—for if the tapir vanishes, the forests it helps to germinate will suffer. But not if field scientist Pati Medici has anything to say about it.
Sibert Medalist Sy Montgomery and veteran Scientists in the Field photographer Nic Bishop are your guides on this bushwhacking expedition to find the weird and wonderful tapir and reveal its mysteries to a world only just beginning to understand it.
Synopsis
If youand#8217;ve never seen a lowland tapir, youand#8217;re not alone. Most of the people who live near tapir habitat in Braziland#8217;s vast Pantanal (and#8220;the Everglades on steroidsand#8221;) havenand#8217;t seen the elusive snorkel-snouted mammal, either. In this arresting nonfiction picture book, Sibert winners Sy Montgomery and Nic Bishop join a tapir-finding expedition led by the Brazilian field scientist Pati Medici. Aspiring scientists will love the immediate, often humorous and#8220;you are thereand#8221; descriptions of fieldwork, and gadget lovers will revel in the high-tech science at play, from microchips to the camera traps that capture the and#8220;soap operaand#8221; of tapir life.
Synopsis
Along the Bay of Bengal between India and Bangladesh stretches a strange and beautiful flooded forest. This enchanted forest is called the Sundarbans Tiger Reserve and is home to more tigers than anywhere else on earth. There are said to be some five hundred tigers here. Nowhere else do tigers live in a mangrove swamp. And nowhere else do healthy tigers routinely hunt people. Yet about three hundred people are killed each year by the tigers of Sundarbans. No one knows why. The Man-Eating Tigers of Sundarbans is a mystery story, but it is also a story about science and myth, about people and tigers, and about different ways of seeing the natural world. Sy Montgomery traveled to Sundarbans searching for answers to the mysteries surrounding these tigers. She listened to what scientists had to say about the unusual tiger behavior and to the stories of the villagers who revere the very animals who hunt them.
Synopsis
It looks like a bear, but isnand#8217;t one. It climbs trees as easily as a monkeyand#151; but isnand#8217;t a monkey, either. It has a belly pocket like a kangaroo, but whatand#8217;s a kangaroo doing up a tree? Meet the amazing Matschieand#8217;s tree kangaroo, who makes its home in the ancient trees of Papua New Guineaand#8217;s cloud forest. And meet the amazing scientists who track these elusive animals.
Synopsis
The tale of one scientist's search for the illusive snow leopard of Mongolia, presented with spectacular photography by the Sibert Medal-winning team of Sy Montgomery and Nic Bishop.
Synopsis
Join Sy Montgomery as she travels far and wide in search of the golden moon bear. Along with her research companions, she delves deep into the jungles of the Elephant Mountains, visits the bustling streets of Cambodian cities, explores remote villages, and attends a Club Med for bears in Thailandand#151;all while carrying marshmallows and tweezers for her encounters with the bears along the way.
The quest for the golden moon bear takes us on an exhilarating journey and chronicles the detective work and science behind tracking a new species in a different part of the world, where bears are kept as pets and where sometimes things arenand#8217;t quite what they seem . . .
Synopsis
Welcome to a forest filled with water. In the wet season, the swollen Amazon becomes a looking glass into another world, where pink dolphins swim like something from a dream. In Peru they are called bufeo coloradoand#151;the ruddy dolphin. Their color ranges from white to gray to a vivid pink. These astonishing mammals, actually river-dwelling whales, easily navigate their way through the complex, hazardous world of the Amazon rain forest. Encantado invites readers on the adventure of a lifetime as we travel into one of the worldand#8217;s most lush and beautiful jungles in search of these magical creatures. Our guides include scientists and researchers as well as the local people, who have lived with the encantadosand#151;the enchanted onesand#151;literally at their doorsteps for centuries. Our main guides are the dolphins themselves. They lead us into myth. They take us back in time to a prehistoric era. They alone can show us the depth of the Amazonand#8217;s beauty, diversity, and magicand#151;and help us to keep our planet rich and whole.
About the Author
Sy Montgomery is an author,andnbsp;naturalist, newspaper columnist,andnbsp;scriptwriter, and radio commentator who writes award-winning books for children as well as adults. She lives in Hancock, New Hampshire.andnbsp;Visit her website at symontgomery.com. andnbsp;andnbsp;andnbsp;andnbsp; Syandnbsp;Montgomery and photographer Nic Bishop won theandnbsp;Sibert Medal in 2011andnbsp;for their collaborative work on Kakapo Rescue:andnbsp;Saving the World's Strangest Parrot,andnbsp;another Scientist in the Field title.andnbsp;andnbsp;