Moonbird, Phillip Hoose
Moonbird, Phillip Hoose
2 Rating(s)
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Moonbird
A Year on the Wind with the Great Survivor B95

Author: Phillip Hoose

Narrator: Phillip Hoose

Unabridged: 3 hr 9 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 02/05/2013

Synopsis

Meet rufa red knot B95. Scientists call him the Moonbird because, in the course of his astoundingly long lifetime, this robin-sized shorebird has ?own the distance to the moon—and halfway back! Each February he joins a ?ock that lifts off from Tierra del Fuego, headed for breeding grounds in the Canadian Arctic, nine thousand miles away. Late in the summer, he begins the return journey.B95 can fly for days, but eventually he must descend to refuel and rest. However, recent changes at stopover sites along his migratory circuit—changes caused mostly by human activity—have reduced the food available and made it harder for the birds to reach. During B95’s lifetime, the worldwide rufa population has collapsed by nearly 80 percent. Still, the Moonbird wings on; he is now nearly twenty years old. Shaking their heads, scientists ask themselves: How can this one bird make it year after year when so many others fall?National Book Award–winning author Phillip Hoose shows the obstacles rufa red knots face, introduces a worldwide team of scientists and conservationists trying to save them, and offers insights about what we can do to help shorebirds before it’s too late. With inspiring prose, thorough research, and stirring images, Hoose explores the tragedy of extinction through the triumph of a single bird.

About Phillip Hoose

Phillip Hoose is an award-winning author of books, essays, stories, songs and articles. Although he first wrote for adults, he turned his attention to children and young adults in part to keep up with his own daughters. His book Claudette Colvin won a National Book Award and was dubbed a Publisher's Weekly Best Book of 2009. He is also the author of Hey, Little Ant, co-authored by his daughter, Hannah; It’s Our World, Too!; The Race to Save the Lord God Bird; The Boys Who Challenged Hitler; and We Were There, Too!, a National Book Award finalist. He has received a Jane Addams Children’s Book Award, a Christopher Award, a Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, and multiple Robert F. Sibert Honor Awards, among numerous honors. He was born in South Bend, Indiana, and grew up in the towns of South Bend, Angola, and Speedway, Indiana. He was educated at Indiana University and the Yale School of Forestry. He lives in Portland, Maine.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Barb on April 14, 2013

Ever hear of a robin-sized bird that flies from South Pole to the North Pole? Me neither. This story follows the migratory patterns of Moonbird, a rufa red knot, that travels 18,000 miles each year on a primordial quest for food and mates. Researchers tagged Moonbird in 1995 and ironically put a ban......more

Goodreads review by Wendy on September 12, 2012

I loved this book at first, but it lost some speed with me. Hoose does a great job at writing the drama of the scientists waiting on beaches, the average people making discoveries and turning into scientists, and his own role in a bird-banding. I was far less taken with the sections about Moonbird h......more

Goodreads review by Patricia on August 12, 2013

One small shorebird, a rufa redknot, tagged B95 many years ago, has probably lived longer than 20 years. His history and that of all rufas is told by master storyteller Phillip Hoose in “Moonbird: a Year on the Wind with the Great Survivor B95” (Farrar 2012). Every year B95 and his compadre rufas m......more

Goodreads review by Donna on January 25, 2013

I wasn't particularly looking forward to reading this book, and so was completely surprised when I thoroughly enjoyed it. I knew nothing about red knots going in, and had assumed that B95 was a number assigned to the species, rather than an individual bird. B95 is the hero of the story, a nearly 20-......more

Goodreads review by Brandy on January 28, 2013

I'll just come right out and say it, I don't normally read non-fiction books. Since I have been keeping up this year with mock newbery titles and this was one of them, I decided to go for it. I wasn't sure what I was expecting when I picked this book up, but I wasn't expecting what I got. When I firs......more

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