Angela and Lulingu: Two Gorillas, a World Apart, by Brenda Royce (Blue Sneaker Press, 2023, ages 6-10, 36pp, $14.99HB) Review by Skye Anderson.
Two gorillas, different yet similar, live "a world apart." One lives in a zoo in California (Angela) while the other, orphan Lulingu, lives in a sanctuary in Africa. They are different species but closely related.
Angela and Lulingu opens with the story of Angela, the zoo baby, then shares the Lulingu's story and concludes with a few pages comparing and contrasting their veterinary care, night nests, favorite foods and daily life.
Author Brenda Royce includes just enough photos to balance the words and even though many pictures do not have captions, it is easy enough to title them yourself! A combination of photographs with fern and flower artistic artwork in purple, orange and green, bordering on comics, is a unique approach to keep the reader's interest.
Most pages also have a vocabulary word and definition like 'orphan' and hopefully your child will notice that Angela's color is green, Lulingu's is red-orange and the several pages in the back of the book are blue-purple where the two gorillas are brought together in prose and photo. Lulingu's sanctuary, GRACE, has even selected her to become an ambassador for gorillas and conservation.
Angela's mom had not been a mom before so the zookeepers used a stuffed gorilla to teach her what to do.
 |
| Baby Angela |
And Lulingu, without a gorilla mom, had two human caretakers 24/7 until the baby was old enough to meet the other gorillas in the sanctuary.
 |
| Baby Lulingu |
With an emphasis on what gorillas can teach us and what young readers can do to help endangered animals, perhaps some of these students will someday work in the fields of animal conservation.
No comments:
Post a Comment