Parrots Over Puerto Rico

Parrots Over Puerto Rico, however, is an extraordinary exception. Using highly detailed collage art, and employing many textured and brightly colored materials, Susan L. Roth has created a book that accurately portrays the colors of the island and evokes the stunning beauty of the endangered parrots of Puerto Rico. Designed to be read "portrait style," the collages cover about 2/3 of each double-spread layout. Cindy Trumbore's narrative appears in a simple black font in the bottom third of the collage against a plain, complementary-colored background.

As stunning as it is, the artwork is not the only thing to love about Parrots over Puerto Rico. An astute teacher's dream, Parrots takes a holistic view of the parrots' rapid decline and show more slow slog back to viability in the wild. As the story of the American Bison is forever entwined with the story of American Westward expansion, the Puerto Rican's parrot story is entwined with that of the Tainos, the Spaniards, and the Americans, as well as that of invasive species, and natural disasters like Hurricane Hugo.

Existing for millions of years on the island of Puerto Rico, they once numbered in the hundreds of thousands, and by 1975, had dwindled to only 13.

"Above the treetops of Puerto Rico flies a flock or parrots as green as their island home. If you look up from the forest, and you are very lucky, you might catch the bright blue flashes of their flight feathers and hear their harsh call.
These are Puerto Rican parrots. They lived on this island for millions of years, and then they nearly vanished from the earth forever. This is their story."

An Afterword contains photographs and information on the Puerto Rican Parrot Recovery Program. Also included is a timeline of Important Dates in the History of Puerto Rico and Puerto Rican Parrots, and Author's Sources.

A video and more at http://shelf-employed.blogspot.com/2014/01/parrots-over-puerto-rico-review.html show less

The first part of this book draws parallels between the history of the Puerto Rican parrot the history of Puerto Rico itself. About halfway through the book, when the parrots become truly endangered, the focus shifts away from Peurto Rican history and concentrates on efforts to rehabilitate the parrot population.

Interesting and well-written, but not a stunner in my eyes. In terms of nonfiction books for kids about endangered species, I greatly prefer last year's [b:Moonbird|2017786|Moonbird|Joyce Dunbar|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1320427691s/2017786.jpg|2022111] by Phillip Hoose, which was for older readers and more in-depth. I also really love [b:Can We Save the Tiger|9322920|Can We Save the Tiger?|Martin show more Jenkins|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1320546044s/9322920.jpg|14206118] by Martin Jenkins. And of course there is the fantastic [b:Kakapo Rescue|7683285|Kakapo Rescue Saving the World's Strangest Parrot (Scientists in the Field Series)|Sy Montgomery|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1388303129s/7683285.jpg|10330134] by Sy Montgomery.

I don't want to be overly critical of a perfectly good book, but I do think this suffers from an in-between problem. The illustrations are beautiful and evocative, but give off a "little kid" vibe, which doesn't match the more sophisticated vocabulary used in the book. So it's somewhere in between a primary and intermediate audience. It's too long for a group read-aloud and I don't think it quite rises to the level of a great dramatic story. Yet it's not written in a way that lends itself to fact finding for reports, except the afterword which has photographs and a timeline. So it's in between narrative nonfiction and traditional informational nonfiction.

But maybe this in-betweeness is a good thing on some level. It might reach a wider audience and have broader appeal because it isn't so easily categorized. I certainly hope to see more nonfiction of this caliber for young readers! show less

Silbert Award Winner
The collages are stunning, colorful and full of life and movement, bringing the island of the parrots to life. The book acts as a history through the eyes of the parrots, starting before people lived on the island and follows their rise and fall until modern day when they needed to be hand hatched in order to increase the population. Than back pages contain contain more real photos of the parrots and the scientists dedicated to helping them survive. The writing, while incredibly informative, does not live up to the liveliness or the interest of the illustrations, leaving my 5 year old bored about 4 pages in.

The authors do a really good job integrating the history of Puerto Rico with the history of the Puerto Rican parrots that live in this country. I definitely appreciated that the authors chose to include the history of Puerto Rico, its colonization, and it's status as a commonwealth of the United States. I think the book poses a lot of social and environmental questions that students can address about the impacts of colonization on wildlife. I have never seen a picture book juxtapose the struggles of wildlife with the struggles of humanity, so I think this book has a lot of depth. Also, the illustrations are done with fabric and paper collages and the book is done in a nontraditional format so I think there are a lot of things about the show more book that would grab student's attention. I think I could integrate this unit with history for 4th-6th grade. I think students would get a really cool opportunity to learn about the history of Puerto Rico and the history of these beautiful parrots that live there. This is one of those stories that you can pull a lot from, so i think this could be used as a read aloud that you would go through in a two days or more. I would love to include this book as a part of a unit on colonization and nature and how the two are related in Puerto Rico and in many other nations around the world.. Also I think this book would be a great one to use to discuss how certain animals go extinct in the event that they are not intentionally protected like the parrots in this book. show less

What a wild story of Puerto Rico's entwined story with the Iguaca parrots. The story fluctuates between the history of the island and then parallel experience of the parrots being damaged from outside forces. I love the detail that is given about the raising and training of the parrots in captivity. Not totally sure how I feel about them letting a parrot get attacked by a hawk for survival training but I guess nature is not all rainbows and smiles. They have a great afterward that presents the information talked about in the story in a very organized way with pictures of the things talked about. The one thing I do with they included was a map! That would have been helpful when referencing different parts of the rain forest. Roth also show more super committed to her illustrations! These are beautiful and SO detailed. It must have taken her forever. In general I do not love books that read vertically. They feel harder to comprehend to me but its is definitely worth it here. show less

Distinctive paper and fabric collage illustrations accompany the story of the Puerto Rican parrots, which is also the history of the island. Detailed and informative, with an unusual layout (the book folds up instead of sideways; illustrations take up the top 3/4, and text is on the lower 1/4 of the bottom page). Back matter includes an afterword, photographs, authors' sources, and important dates in the history of Puerto Rico and the Puerto Rican parrots.

This was an informational book because it told the story of the parrots in Puerto Rico and how they almost went extinct but are not doing better. This was a really enjoyable informational book to read because of the illustrations and because of how the book opened and worked. The illustrations in the book were collages that I believe were made out of paper, and the book opened from the top, rather than from the right to the left. The information in this book was written in a fascinating way as well, so overall this was one of my favorite informational books that I have read thus far. I would definitely have this book in my classroom and would use it as a mentor text. This text would be good for any ages.