Atlas of Extinct Animals - Radek Maly, Pavel Dvorsky, Jiri Grbavcic

In this book, award-winning poet Radek Malý tells the stories of forty-one extinct species and studies the causes of their sad demise. The large-format Atlas of Extinct Animals is supplemented with beautifully expressive full-page illustrations by gifted artist Jiří Grbavčič and detailed pictures by renowned scientific illustrator Pavel Dvorský. The gorgeous, detailed depictions and descriptions of species and their fates can only serve as a reminder and as a warning of how much life has already disappeared from the Earth. The atlas also shows that the disappearances continue. Page by page it nears the present day and ultimately introduces creatures that still existed a few years ago, like the Zanzibar leopard (until 1996) and the Chinese river dolphin (until 2007). In the end, we are left with a bitter question: Which creature will next be added to this atlas? This book was selected by White Ravens 2020 for the annual catalog of book recommendations in the field of international children’s and youth literature.

My Review: A splendid book about the species that no longer populate our planet. Humans had a direct impact on destroying the habitats of some of them, or hunting others to extinction, and this atlas comes as a cry for caution. By looking at what our planet has lost we might start to pay more attention to the species that are close to extinction. Every animal gets two pages, with a beautiful full-page illustration on the left, and its history with some detailed anatomical drawings on the right. The information is simple enough to be read by a child, but I found it very eye-opening and full of details I didn't know, so it's perfectly suited for adults as well.

It's a high-quality encyclopedia with much love and care put into it.

Publisher: ‎ Albatros Media (February 22, 2022)

Language: ‎ English

Hardcover: ‎ 88 pages

ISBN-13: ‎ 978-8000061269

Reading age: ‎ 9 - 17 years

Review copy provided by Ingram @ Edelweiss+