A Boy and a Jaguar: A Hopeful True Story for Children (Ages 4-7) About Speaking for Animals and Finding Purpose - Hardcover

Rabinowitz, Alan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 054787507X ISBN 13: 9780547875071

Publisher: Clarion Books, 2014

Synopsis

2015 Schneider Family Book Award Winner
* "A candid and deeply resonant account of a hard-fought battle against societal stigma, and an embrace of one's true talent and calling." —Publisher's Weekly, starred review

Speaking for the animals he loves gives one boy’s life hope, purpose, and truth in this gorgeous picture book autobiography.

Alan loves animals, but the great cat house at the Bronx Zoo makes him sad. Why are they all alone in empty cages? Are they being punished? More than anything, he wants to be their champion—their voice—but he stutters uncontrollably.

Except when he talks to animals…then he is fluent.

Follow the life of the man Time Magazine calls, "the Indiana Jones of wildlife conservation" as he searches for his voice and fulfills a promise to speak for animals, and people, who cannot speak for themselves. This real-life story with tender illustrations by Catia Chien explores truths not defined by the spoken word.

Publishers Weekly Best Book
Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Honor
Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People 2015
Winner of the 2015 Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award
2015 Green Earth Book Honor book

About this title

About the Authors

Dr. Alan Rabinowtiz dedicated his life to two causes: protecting the world's thirty-six wild cat species and advocating for stutterers as a spokesperson for the Stuttering Foundation of America. His conservation work has been chronicled in the New York Times, Scientific American, Audobon, Outside, Jerusalem Report and National Geographic Explorer, among others. He often told audiences that he felt lucky to have been given the gift of stuttering and believed that without it, he would not have followed the path of his passion--saving big cats. Visit www.panthera.org and www.stutteringhelp.org.

Cátia Chien is a Brazilian Taiwanese painter, a public speaker, and the illustrator of celebrated picture books, including The Longest Letsgoboy, The Bear and the Moon, and A Boy and a Jaguar, recipient of the Schneider Family Book Award. Her art has been shown in galleries worldwide. She is also the founder of A Thousand Worlds, a curated picture book directory celebrating BIPOC creators. She lives with her family in the Bay Area of Northern California. Visit her at catiachien.com.

Reviews

Gr 2–5—Rabinowitz is a wildlife conservationist and spokesperson for the Stuttering Foundation of America. When he was a boy, he discovered that, despite severe speech challenges, he had a gift for communicating with animals. The book charts his story through college and his travels to the jungles of Belize. Eventually, he overcomes his stutter enough to speak before the prime minister on behalf of the jaguars. Chien's acrylic and charcoal illustrations perfectly capture the tenacious, loving spirit of the author as a boy and a lonely, intrepid young man. Chien has a flair for painting animals as well as portraying Rabinowitz's condition with empathy. One page, drenched in a moody mauve, depicts his anguished face and hands gripping at his throat as he tries to "push words out." With the flip of a page, readers see the boy awash in yellow sunlight, surrounded by animals, his face completely relaxed as he speaks fluently. Rabinowitz's text is elegant, if at times slightly wordy for the target audience: "In this animal's eyes are strength and power and sureness of purpose." The emotional resonance of the text, urgency of the issues discussed, and breathtakingly beautiful illustrations make this book a winner. The story will help children empathize with their peers with speech issues and will be a lifeline to those with special needs or who feel like outsiders for one reason or another. Every library should own this book, a testament to the fierce beauty of jaguars and the human spirit.—Jess deCourcy Hinds, Bard High School Early College, Queens, NY

In this poignant autobiography, Rabinowitz recalls the alienation he felt as a child who thought he was “broken” because he could not get his words out fluently. But there are other, more powerful ways of communicating, which Alan knows from the ease with which he talks to animals. As he grows up, he learns to both conquer and embrace the fact that he will always be a stutterer, and he soon becomes an advocate for animals. When, in the forest, he looks into the eyes of a jaguar and sees “strength and power and sureness of purpose,” readers will feel privileged to be part of this magical experience. Chien’s impressionistic illustrations lend a gentle playfulness to the overall solemnity, with muted colors, expressive faces, and arrangements that draw attention to scale and size—all of which remind us that there are many ways to tell a story, whether you are one with words, like Rabinowitz, or one without any, like the jaguar. A mature look at how some observant children understand the world better than some adults. Grades 1-4. --Amina Chaudhri

Edition details

• Publisher: Clarion Books
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 054787507X
• ISBN 13: 9780547875071
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Chien Cátia
• Number of pages: 32