Undaunted: The Wild Life of Birute Mary Galdikas and Her Fearless Quest to Save Orangutans

by Anita Silvey

Overview

As a young scientist, Birute Mary Galdikas had a mission: To find and study the elusive orangutans of Borneo's rain forest to help protect this amazing and elusive species.

Follow her story as she carries out an epic search and struggles to survive while studying the world's most endangered great ape.

When Galdikas saw her first image of an orangutan in the wild, she was immediately captivated. It haunted her and she found its gaze "almost hypnotic." She moved to Borneo, where she made it her life's mission to study and work to protect these mysterious creatures. Like primatologists Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey, Galdikas was driven by incredible ambition and a fascination with apes and human origins, making her way to the harsh rain forests of Indonesian Borneo when she was just 25 years old. She set up a simple camp, named after her mentor, Louis Leakey, and proceeded to look ... and look ...and look for wild orangutans, one of the most elusive species on the planet. Her studies brought these critically endangered apes to the world stage, and they are still making an impact today. Now in her 70s, Dr. Galdikas has conducted the longest running study of any wild mammal by any single scientist.

Award-winning author Anita Silvey explores the life and legacy of this incredible and little-known primatologist. With unparalleled storytelling, Silvey offers unique insight into Galdikas' childhood, her work with National Geographic, her passion of raising awareness about conservation, and her mission of securing a future for orangutans.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781426333569
Publisher:	Disney Publishing Group
Publication date:	05/14/2019
Pages:	96
Product dimensions:	7.80(w) x 10.10(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	1140L (what's this?)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

As the author of 100 Best Books for Children, 500 Great Books for Teens, and Everything I Need to Know I Learned from a Children's Book, ANITA SILVEY has devoted 40 years to promoting books that will turn the young — and families — into readers. Her most recent books are Untamed: The Wild Life of Jane Goodall and Let Your Voice Be Heard: The Life and Times of Pete Seeger. She has appeared frequently on NPR, The Today Show, 60 Minutes, and various radio programs to talk about the best books for young people. In a unique career in the children's book field, Silvey has divided her time equally between publishing, evaluating children's books, and writing. Her lifelong conviction that "only the very best of anything can be good enough for the young" forms the cornerstone of her work. Formerly publisher of children's books for Houghton Mifflin Company and editor in chief of The Horn Book magazine, she currently teaches modern book publishing, children's book publishing, and children's book author studies at several colleges.

Editorial Reviews

04/15/2019

Silvey (Untamed: The Wild Life of Jane Goodall) spotlights another groundbreaking primatologist in this handsome photobiography of Galdikas, who was mesmerized by a photo of an orangutan while studying zoology at UCLA and knew she wanted to study wild primates. Anthropologist Louis Leakey became her mentor and secured funding for her pioneering research, which Silvey chronicles in a fact-packed narrative. Accompanied by her husband, Rod Brindamour, whose breathtaking photos illustrate this volume, Galdikas moved to Borneo in 1971, becoming the first scientist to study wild orangutans there. A fierce advocate for the protection of this endangered species and its habitat, Galdikas began a quest to observe and rehabilitate formerly captive or orphaned orangutans to prepare them for life in the wild, fostering many herself. The book includes some unfortunate omissions: there’s no mention of the controversies surrounding Galdikas’s discontinued orangutan rehabilitation program, and a sidebar about Borneo focuses on colonial occupation rather than its indigenous peoples, who are mentioned elsewhere in the book but curiously not there. These oversights aside, Silvey presents a crisp portrait of a tenacious, groundbreaking scientist who has been underrepresented in books for youth. Extensive back matter concludes. Ages 8–12. (May)

Publishers Weekly

"In telling her remarkable journey, Silvey doesn't gloss over their hardships as she explores the critical determination of Galdikas to study and protect orangutans. Beautiful photographs, inviting format, notes, and an index make this a great addition for any animal collection." — Booklist

"VERDICT This detailed book is great for students who are studying animal conservation or want to learn about similar primatologists and anthropologists like Jane Goodall." — School Library Journal



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From the Publisher

05/01/2019

Gr 4–6—Many people know about Jane Goodall, but far fewer know about the work of Biruté Mary Galdikas. Galdikas began studying orangutans in Borneo in 1971 and eventually created the Orangutan Foundation International, a nonprofit organization that focuses on protecting these mammals and their environments. The narrative shares the story of Galdikas's early life and her interest in science as a young girl. Readers are provided with generous background material not only on Galdikas and her family but the mentors she adopted along the way, including Louis Leakey and Jane Goodall. The narrative documents her journey to study these creatures in the wild and her pursuit to save these animals from extinction. Certainly filled with its challenges, including months sequestered in the rain forest without human contact or a well-rounded diet, Galdikas was determined to learn as much as she could. She realized that orangutans were quite similar to humans in their need for love, affection, and attention. Students will marvel at the lush landscape and adorable animals. Biographies of the various orangutans that she studied are included, as well as maps, a key to the featured plants, and further resources. VERDICT This detailed book is great for students who are studying animal conservation or want to learn about similar primatologists and anthropologists like Jane Goodall.—V. Lynn Christiansen, Wiley International Studies Magnet Elementary School, Raleigh, NC

School Library Journal

2019-03-03

A portrait of primatologist Biruté Mary Galdikas and her long career studying Bornean orangutans.

With a magazine-style format (the pages are crowded with sidebars), the book uplifts the life and work of a lesser-known conservation scientist. Beginning with Galdikas' childhood in Toronto as the daughter of Lithuanian immigrants, the narrative quickly moves on to her start in primatology. When Silvey dives into Galdikas' exploits in Indonesian Borneo, the author emphasizes Galdikas' relentlessness despite constant challenges. Curiously, Galdikas' controversial rehabilitation program for captive orangutans is depicted in near-hagiographic terms. Most glaring is the book's white-savior tone, in which Silvey problematically represents Indigenous peoples and Galdikas' paternalism is thinly veiled. In a profile of Toronto's High Park, the author describes the city's Indigenous peoples (who are still very much alive today) in a section labeled "Ancient History." In a similar vein, Galdikas' shocking "rule for life" is emblazoned across a photograph of her orangutan center's brown-skinned staff: "Remember that in camp the orangutans come FIRST, science second, local staff and people third, and we, the foreign researchers, LAST." A white scientist ranking "locals"—whose homeland she views imperiously as a place where "time had stood still"—so low in her hierarchy is offensive.

Audacious, yes, but not in a good way. (foreword, extended resources, author's note) (Biography. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews