Animals to the Rescue!: Amazing True Stories from around the World

by Sandra Markle

Overview

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!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781541581227
Publisher:	Lerner Publishing Group
Publication date:	10/05/2021
Series:	Sandra Markle's Science Discoveries
Pages:	56
Product dimensions:	10.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.36(d)
Lexile:	1140L (what's this?)
Age Range:	10 - 11 Years

About the Author

Sandra Markle is the author of numerous award-winning books for children. A former elementary science teacher, she is a nationally-known science education consultant. Markle has received many honors for her series Animal Predators, Animal Scavengers, and Animal Prey. Several titles have been named as National Science Teachers Association (NSTA)/Children’s Book Council (CBC) Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K-12, and Animal Predators was honored as a Top 10 Youth Nonfiction Series by Booklist.

Markle is also the author of the Insect World series and several single titles. Her book Rescues! was named a Best Book by the Society of School Librarians International and a Recommended Title of Outstanding Nonfiction by the National Council of Teachers of English’s (NCTE) Orbis Pictus Award committee; Animal Heroes was named a 2008 Lasting Connections title by Book Links. Markle lives in Lakewood Ranch, Florida with her husband, photographer Skip Jeffery.

Editorial Reviews

"An exciting and stimulating treat for those open to the picture book format but capable of reading advanced middle-grade text."—School Library Journal

From the Publisher

12/03/2021

Gr 3–6—In eight dramatic tales of animal heroism, these stories include a lamb responsible for comforting orphaned rhinos in South Africa, a guide dog in New York who took a collision with a school bus to protect his vision impaired owner, and trained landmine-sniffing rats saving lives in Mozambique. The narrative chapters are accompanied by full-color photographs and informational supplements, such as pages on "how to train your HeroRAT." The stories are brief, informative, and engaging. This title may suffer a bit in student popularity due to its format. The book has the length and shape of a traditional picture book, but the substantial and advanced text may be too difficult for the typical picture book audience VERDICT An exciting and stimulating treat for those open to the picture book format but capable of reading advanced middle-grade text. This one will need, and is worthy of, hand-selling.—Mallory Weber

School Library Journal

2021-09-15
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. (author’s note, glossary, source note, further reference, index, photo credits) (Nonfiction. 7-10)

Kirkus Reviews