Gone Wild: An Endangered Animal Alphabet by Dvid McLimans

McLimans, David. (2006). Gone Wild: An Endangered Animal Alphabet. New York: Walker &
Company.

Grade Level:
I would recommend this book for students in grades Pre-K – 4.

Author Credibility:
This book is a Caldecott Honor Book and a Notable Children’s Book. In the introduction McLimans tells the reader the struggles he faced while writing this book. The author also provides a section in the book providing the reader with places to obtain more information about these animals.

Summary:
This book presents the letters of the alphabet in the shapes of endangered animals. At the top of each page is the common and scientific name of the animal. Followed by the upper and lower case letter directly under it. The majority of each page consists of a large letter formed by an endangered animal. On the side of each page is a box containing several important aspects about the animal. A sketch of the animal is at the top of the box. The animals class, habitat, range (where it lives), threats, and status (critically endangered, endangered, vulnerable) is also told about each animal. At the end of the alphabet the animals are presented again. More facts about each animal is presented in this section.

Standards:
Science:
Life Science
Science in Personal and Social Perspectives

Illustrations:
The illustrations are also done by David McLimans. Each letter of the alphabet is black. The sketches of the whole animal are done completely in red. The illustrations were done by pen, pencil, brush, India ink, bristol board, and computer.

Access Features:
*Charts
*Further Reading
*List of organizations that help endangered animals

How I would use the book in the classroom:
For younger students you could use this book to discuss the letters of the alphabet. You may challenge students to make letters out of some other everday materials. For older students you could use this book to study endangered animals. This may spark an interest for more research about certain animals. I think this would be a good way to introduce a unit on endangered animals.

My response to the book:
I loved looking at the illustrations in the book. It was so interesting to see how the animals turned into letters. I also liked that information about each animal was organized in a way so that it would be easily accesible.

Related Texts:
*Endangered Animals A-Z by Jill Bailey and Clint Twist
*Encyclopedia of Animals: Mammals, Birds, Reptiles, Amphibians by Harold Cogger et. al.
*Endangered Animals by George Fichter and Kristin Kest
*The Penguin Atlas of Endangered Species: A Worldwide Guide to Plants and Animals by Richard MacKay

Other:
The end pages of this book are scattered with the various sketches of the endangered animals, all in red. Red for me is an urgent color. It says we must stop what we are doing to these animals before it is to late. All of the letters in the title are made up of the animal letters presented throughout the book.