I'm ashamed to say, I sometimes see reading bedtime stories to the kids (or, now that Sophie's older, listening to her read me a story) a bit of a chore, especially after a long day at work. However, this week, I've been the one saying, " Come on, let's go and find out what's happening to the polar bear cubs" every night !
Wild Rescue is a series of books for 7-9 year olds, following the adventures of twins Ben and Zoe who work for a top secret organisation called Wild that sends them all over the world to come to the rescue of animals in danger. At the end of the book, we learn that the other books in the series are Wild Rescue : Forest Fire (which deals with orang-utans), Wild Rescue : Safari Survival (elephants), Wild Rescue : Ocean S.O.S. (dolphins) and Wild Rescue : Earthquake Escape (pandas). This episode, Wild Rescue : Polar Meltdown, tells the story of two orphaned polar bear cubs who need rescuing in Alaska after their mother is killed.
As the book's heroes are boy-girl twins, the stories will appeal to animal lovers of both sexes. Fans of kiddie spy programmes will also love all the high-tech gadgets that Ben and Zoe use in their missions - it's like a cross between Totally Spies and Go Diego Go !
The stories are brilliantly written, combing absolutely loads of information about animal life, environmental issues and geography with a fast-paced exciting story of adventures in exotic locations. The words are easy to understand and the numerous black and white illustrations help young readers to follow the story, but I was very impressed by the relatively complex issues approached in a very kid-friendly way. The book finishes with a double page of information about polar bears and a website (http://www.polarbearsinternational.org/) where you can go and do further research. 8-year-old Sophie also asked me to show her some pictures in colour of the Northern Lights, after being intrigued by their description in the story.
It's rare to find a story that is so exciting, simple to read but also absolutely packed with factual information. I'll definitely be looking at getting hold of the whole series now.
8-year-old Sophie's review :
Wild Rescue is a great book because it tells us all about polar bears. It’s a good book for boys or girls about my age (8) because it's not too long and it's easy to read. It’s a really exciting story because Ben and Zoe go to exciting and dangerous places and we don’t know if they will manage to save the polar bear cubs or if they will get killed. I really like them because they do exciting stuff but they are also a normal brother and sister who fight with each other sometimes ! I like their spy gadgets . They are really cool. I also liked learning about things like the Northern Lights and how eskimoes live and at the end you can go on internet to find out even more about polar bears. Now I want to read the other Wild Rescue books to learn lots of things about other animals too.I love the fact that they went to Alaska. I didn’t know anything about Alaska and now I know loads.
star rating : 5/5
RRP : £4.99
Paperback: 144 pages
Publisher: Stripes Publishing, an imprint of Magi Publications (1 Oct 2009)
ISBN-10: 1847150675
ISBN-13: 978-1847150677
11-year-old Serena Wild Rescue books are great books because they tell us all about endangered animals. Ben and Zoe go on dangerous and amazing missions to safe animals in danger because of poachers or because their homes are being distrude.you can go on the internet and find stuff about where the story takes place and then you can read the Wild Rescue books and learn more.
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