As animal numbers plummet, we face troublesome conversations with youngsters about what it means to lose a species. The artistic staff of Tony Piedra and Mackenzie Pleasure has gifted us all with a approach to enter into these conversations with their e-book, PAU: THE LAST SONG OF THE KAUA‘I ‘O‘O. In Hawaiian, “pau” means ended, completed—extinct. This story supplies a lyrical and profound approach to train and talk about extinction with younger youngsters. Printed in September 2024, PAU has been already been awarded an impressive science commerce books of 2024 for college kids Ok-12 by the Nationwide Science Instructing Affiliation.
The textual content on this e-book is deceptively sparse, however its fewer 250 phrases pack an emotional punch. When the primary Polynesians arrived,
The ‘o’o moved—away from the gardens, from the shelters, from the individuals. However nonetheless there have been many ‘o’o, and their track stuffed the Island.
Every double-page unfold within the e-book has a tiny layer of timeline close to the underside of the web page. The story stretches from 5.1 million years in the past with the start of the island, to arrival of the Polynesians, the arrival of the Europeans, the devastating storm of November 1982, the lack of the final ‘o’o in 1987, and ahead to the current day.
The pages following the arrival of the Europeans is a superb instance of the elegant simplicity of this e-book. The textual content is straightforward: “They introduced extra they usually constructed extra.” It is just by wanting on the reflection within the ‘o’o’s eye that you just perceive that one of many issues they introduced was the mosquito. Because the backmatter explains, a part of the decline of the ‘o’o is linked to avian malaria.
Mackenzie Pleasure and Tony Piedra, who collectively go by “Mak & Tea” had identified one another for some time, however they started their collaboration in 2019, once they had been caught at an airport with a delayed flight. For hours, they wrote and drew, and by the point they finally reached residence, they’d 4 e-book concepts they wished to pitch collectively. PAU is the second of these acquired by Candlewick Press and it’s fairly possible that this e-book will proceed to garner awards over the approaching years. Their first collaboration, ONE TINY TREEFROG, was long-listed for the American Affiliation of the Development of Science and Subaru award for excellence in science books.
Backmatter features a “spot the animal” exercise, with animals that had been endemic, animals that had been launched by Polynesians, and animals that had been launched by Europeans. Readers can see the animals within the backmatter, after which hunt for them within the textual content of the e-book itself. There are additionally sections offering a short historical past of the Kaua‘i ‘o’o, a particular bibliography and sources for additional exploration.
Most significantly, nevertheless, there’s a part on extinction—on what it signifies that the Kaua‘i ‘o’o is pau. What scientists be taught, the authors clarify, is “altering the way in which we dwell on this planet and is instructing us the right way to defend and save the species now we have left.”
Mak & Tea have achieved the close to inconceivable. They’ve created a e-book about extinction that explores loss and disappointment, but opens a door for hope.
[Note: Kaua’i ‘o’o is typically spelled with a straight line (macron) over both the final “o”s. Those marks have been removed in this post as the site changes the macrons to other characters.]
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PAU: THE LAST SONG OF THE KAUA’I ‘O’O by Tony Piedra and Mackenzie Pleasure
Candlewick, 2024
ISBN: 978-1-5362-1949-4
$19.99 USA, $24.99 CAN
40 pages, Grade degree PreK-2, ages 3-7