Pika Country

Ph.D. zoologist Dorothy Hinshaw Patent uses her scientific training to write books about the natural world for youngreaders. Dorothy is the author of more than 100 books for children, her most recent being AT HOME WITH THE BEAVER: THESTORY OF A KEYSTONE SPECIES. Dorothy lives in Missoula, Montana. To find out more about Dorothy, visit her website atwww.DorothyHinshawPatent.com.

Received the California Reading Association's Eureka! Book Award for Excellence in Nonfiction Gold Award  Named an "Outstanding Science Trade Book" by the National Science Teachers Association and Children's BookCouncil  Named one of “The Best Children’s Books of the Year” by the Children’s Book Committee and the Bank Street College ofEducation "Pikas, tiny rabbit relatives living in high altitudes, serve as an entry point toward understanding the consequencesof a warming world. FollowingAt Home With the Beaver, with photos by Michael Runtz (2019), Patent, with co-author Garnsworthy, returns to the idea of theinterconnectedness of species with this welcome new title. Hartman’s photographs dramatically illustrate a clear,well-organized text that opens with descriptions of the mountainous “pika country” near Yellowstone National Park andthe feisty pikas. Readers first see a pika “scurry, scurry, hurry,” gathering food for the day and for its winter haypile. There’s a helpful map and photos of the scenery in several seasons. The writers introduce the idea of climatechange (printed in boldface and defined, like other important words, in a glossary) and other animals sharing thisgradually warming habitat. Not only is the pika’s livable world shrinking as the snowline moves up the mountains,there’s less of an insulating snowpack in winter and fewer hours with appropriate temperatures for foraging in summer.Photos, diagrams (by Garnsworthy), and words work together to demonstrate the food web that includes this tiny mammaland other plants and animals, also threatened by the changing climate, whose lives connect with theirs. In conclusion,final essays explain today’s climate change causes and suggest some personal actions in the realms of transportation,living and eating habits, and sharing information, but no sources or further resources are offered. An effectivedemonstration of the reverberations of climate change. (Nonfiction. 6-9)"—Kirkus Reviews "Beautifully illustrated with full color photography on each page, "Pika Country: Climate Change at the Top of theWorld" will take young readers ages 5-9 on a journey to a place they have never ventured before that is beneath a rockpile on a lonely mountain top. There they will meet the pikas, or rock rabbits. These scurrying, squeaking,industrious, and exceedingly cute mammals make their living harvesting grass and wildflowers during the brief alpinesummers. But despite the remoteness of their homes, the pikas' lifestyle and survival are threatened by ClimateChange. Children will enjoy following the story of pikas which is told with lavish photographs by Dan Hartman, and theclear prose of collaborative authors Dorothy Patent and Marlo Garnsworthy, and learn how small actions on our part canhave global benefits. "Pika Country: Climate Change at the Top of the World" is an extraordinary, fun and informativeaddition to elementary school and community library Wildlife and Environmental Studies picture book collections andreading lists."—Midwest Book Review "Pikas may seem cute and cuddly, but in this book they serve as a clear representation of the dangers many speciesface amid a warming climate. Winner of the National Science Teachers Association Outstanding Science Trade Book Award,this non-fiction resource stands out through its succinct text and large photographs. Elementary school-aged childrencan learn about the life of pikas in their chilly alpine environment and how climate change endangers them. AuthorsDorothy Hinshaw Patent and Marlo Garnsworthy also help frame how the plight of pikas is connected to predators,pollinators, and alpine plants. This helpful climate change resource contains several food web diagrams and isfollowed up by a definition of climate change, actions we can take in response to it, and a glossary." –Green Teacher