RIVER RESCUE

Oiled birds get rescued and
rehabilitated by an experienced team.

On the U.S. East Coast, a team from
the Delaware-based Tri-State Bird Rescue & Research rescues birds and
animals from oil spills of all kinds. Their process involves capture, treatment,
including extensive scrubbing, and time for recovery before release. The book’s
alliterative title misleads: This organization works with animals oiled in all
kinds of places. In the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, in their biggest oil-spill job,
pelicans were the most common birds they treated, described in the two opening
spreads. Yee’s digitally colored drawings are realistic. Knowledgeable readers
will recognize the painted turtle, great blue herons, mallards, Canada geese,
bald eagle, and mergansers in the hands of wildlife rehabilitators,
veterinarians, and support staff or paddling happily in recovery pools. Peeking
out of cages in their rescue truck are others: a wood duck, a muskrat, a
cormorant. The variety is impressive. The men and women working with these injured
animals represent different ages and races. The relatively simple text is
printed directly on the illustrations in a large font. The use of first-person
plural emphasizes the teamwork involved. As with other books from this
publisher, backmatter includes further information: suggestions for things
readers can do, a picture-identification puzzle, and an interview with the
organization’s executive director.

A straightforward description of how
some humans are working to help animals affected by the oils we all use. (Informational
picture book. 5-9)