Nonfiction
eBook
Details
PUBLISHED
Made available through hoopla
DESCRIPTION
1 online resource
ISBN/ISSN
LANGUAGE
NOTES
Audisee® eBooks with Audio combine professional narration and sentence highlighting for an engaging read aloud experience! Did you know that rats can be heroes? In the southern African nation of Mozambique, these amazing rats (which are the size of a small house cat) have helped clear landmines. And that's just one of the incredible stories in this book. Award-winning author Sandra Markle has collected wonderful true stories about animals that have rescued humans-and other animals. With fabulous photographs of the featured animals, this book is sure to appeal to animal lovers everywhere! "This intriguing volume tells how animals have helped others during times of crisis. Guiding a research diver back to her boat in the Cook Islands, a whale protected the woman from a shark attack. A young rhinoceros in South Africa, inconsolable after his mother was killed by poachers, refused to eat, until a lamb became his inseparable friend. In Mozambique, giant pouched rats, taught to sniff out land mines, enabled the devices' removal. In other stories, trained dogs rescued people following an earthquake and after an avalanche, while elephants helped a community in the aftermath of a tsunami. Though similar in topic and audience to the author's Animal Heroes: True Rescue Stories (2008), the material in this book is entirely new, and the storytelling is captivating. As noted in the back matter, Markle's research includes interviews with people who were integral to the animals' stories. The book's broad, international focus encourages global awareness. Telling tales of peril with animals as heroes, and featuring color photos on every page, this attractive book will easily find its audience."-Booklist "Even animals can be heroes, as evidenced by these true-life accounts from around the world. These stories of animals rescuing people and other animals come from interviews with survivors and animal trainers. Markle draws readers in with a suspenseful tale of a whale saving a researcher in the South Pacific from an aggressive tiger shark and concludes with a heart-tugging picture of a dog comforting a child whose home in Peru has been destroyed by fire. In between, chapters introduce a lamb who comforts orphaned African large mammals, giant pouched rats who find buried land mines, a guide dog who came between her owner and an oncoming mini school bus, dogs who find survivors in destroyed buildings and under avalanches, other dogs who guard a penguin sanctuary, elephants who help clean up after a tsunami, and a cat who attacked a dog threatening a child. She describes the training of 'HeroRATs' in considerable detail and includes callout boxes on endangered rhinos, land mines, rescue-dog training, and the lives of little penguins. This prolific nonfiction writer and confessed animal lover knows how to choose stories and details that will appeal to her readers, writing clearly and engagingly. Pronunciation for some names is provided in context, and the text is liberally supplemented with photographs and maps (sadly, nearly illegible blue silhouettes on a dark purple background) showing generally where the stories take place. Nicely varied collection and a perennially popular subject."-Kirkus Reviews
Mode of access: World Wide Web