Creature Corridors

Creature Corridors is a fascinating non-fiction book for young people that provides a clear and concise definition of wildlife corridors as well as examples of specific animals and the types of crossings used to solve particular problems caused by human development and infrastructure.

Rooney balances the need for explicit, accessible prose and enticing, lyrical writing. She uses onomatopoeia and repetition to draw readers into each animal group’s experience and this allows the reader to empathise with the challenges faced by a diverse cast of animals.  My favourite spread focuses on Kangaroos:

           ” In a town bustling with cars and buses, kangaroos thump, thump, as if to say, ‘This road is too dangerous. How can we cross to the other side?’”

The information contained in the story is enlightening and many kids as well as adults will not know all the examples. There is further information in the end pages with which to engage young readers in a research topic at school or at home.

The artwork is detailed and represents an array of landscapes in vivid yet naturalistic colours. Noack’s animal characters are full of animated emotion and this enhances the text’s empathetic approach to the topic. A highlight of the artwork for me is the focus on the movement of the animals. Noack captures the “crawling, hopping, climbing … flying” with such dynamism that it almost feels as if some creatures leap or soar off the page. This focus on movement extends the text’s emphasis on the natural mobility of animals and therefore the need for corridors. The artworks are also detailed, so readers can grasp very easily what the corridors look like even if they can’t see them in person.

Creature Corridors is a wonderful book for home and school that should excite and interest young minds about an important and fascinating topic.