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A Bestiary of Extraordinary Endangered Creatures
From the award-winning author Katherine Rundell comes a "rare and magical book" (Bill Bryson) reckoning with the vanishing wonders of our natural world.
The world is more astonishing, more miraculous, and more wonderful than our wildest imaginings. In this brilliant and passionately persuasive book, Katherine Rundell takes us on a globe-spanning tour of the world's most awe-inspiring animals currently facing extinction.
Consider the seahorse: couples mate for life and meet each morning for a dance, pirouetting and changing colors before going their separate ways, to dance again the next day. The American wood frog survives winter by allowing itself to freeze solid, its heartbeat slowing until it stops altogether. Come spring, the heart kick-starts itself spontaneously back to life. As for the lemur, it lives in matriarchal troops led by an alpha female (it's not unusual for female ring-tailed lemurs to slap males across the face when they become aggressive). Whenever they are cold or frightened, they group together in what's known as a lemur ball, paws and tails intertwined, to form a furry mass as big as a bicycle wheel.
But each of these extraordinary animals is endangered or holds a sub-species that is endangered. This urgent, inspiring book of essays dedicated to 23 unusual and underappreciated creatures is a clarion call insisting that we look at the world around us with new eyes—to see the magic of the animals we live among, their unknown histories and capabilities, and above all how lucky we are to tread the same ground as such vanishing treasures.
Beautifully illustrated, and full of inimitable wit and intellect, Vanishing Treasures is a chance to be awestruck and lovestruck, to reckon with the beauty of the world, its fragility, and its strangeness.
"Brisk, eye-opening, thoroughly entertaining ... Young and old will savor Rundell's infectious enthusiasm for these remarkable and infinitely varied creatures. A clarion call for preservation by way of a delightful bestiary." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"A poignant survey of animal species whose survival is threatened by humans ... Rundell approaches her subjects with reverence, as when she writes that blind, iridescent golden moles 'burrow and breed and hunt, live and die under the African sun, unaware of their beauty, unknowingly glowing.' Animal lovers will cherish this." —Publishers Weekly
"[Rundell] illuminates this collection of essays with fable, legend, myth, and truth stranger than fiction... Although it is a sobering glimpse at the destruction humanity has wrought on other living things, Vanishing Treasures is ultimately an uplifting and inspiring exploration of the wonder left in the world and how humanity can fit within it, and add to its extraordinary quality." —Shelf Awareness
"[Vanishing Treasures] extolls the marvellous strangeness of, among other species, hedgehogs, giraffes, and swifts ... Rundell has a great deal of infectious fun with these creatures, and with the line separating fact from fable." —The New Yorker
"[Vanishing Treasures] consists of loving, playful essays about animals that are endangered or hold a subspecies that is endangered: sea horses, lemurs, golden moles and more. It's pervaded with both wonder and worry, as indeed is much of [Rundell's] work." —The New York Times
"A witty, intoxicating paean to Earth's wondrous creatures ... shot through with Rundell's characteristic wit and swagger." —The Guardian (UK)
"[A] dazzling collection of essays about some of the world's most wondrous creatures. From the iridescence of the golden mole to parasites in the eye of the Greenland shark, Rundell details the natural world in exquisite prose ... Rundell's gift for language, wit and historical observation combine here to create a rare and beautiful book." —The Observer (UK)
"There is a constant joy in the book ... A sense throughout of delight and wonder, and a reminder that these emotions also matter—may even save us. This is the point." —New Statesman (UK)
"Rundell's book is, on the surface, about animals - but, in reality, it is a pretext for us to learn about ourselves and our relationship with nature. Written in the enchanted, storytelling tone of medieval bestiaries, Vanishing Treasures captures the joy and wonder of wildlife and weaves it into the fabric of human history. A delight to read." —Joanna Bagniewska, author of The Modern Bestiary
"Whether she is writing about a jumping spider, a hedgehog, or the curious, pine-cone-like mammals known as a pangolin, Katherine Rundell stuns us with wonders. Each of her essays is a polished gem—and each will leave you newly smitten with love for life." —Sy Montgomery, New York Times bestselling author of The Soul of an Octopus
"A compendium of the wonders of the scuttling, flapping, galloping, swimming, and hopping jewels of the world. This charming menagerie features creatures both familiar and strange, whose futures we have imperiled, and Rundell shares their stories with ceaseless curiosity. A book brimming with astonishments and hope." —Sabrina Imbler, author of How Far the Light Reaches
This information about Vanishing Treasures was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Photo: Blair Mowat
Katherine Rundell is the author of Rooftoppers, Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms (a Boston Globe–Horn Book Award winner), The Wolf Wilder, The Explorer, and The Good Thieves. She grew up in Zimbabwe, Brussels, and London, and is currently a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. She begins each day with a cartwheel and believes that reading is almost exactly the same as cartwheeling: it turns the world upside down and leaves you breathless. In her spare time, she enjoys walking on tightropes and trespassing on the rooftops of Oxford colleges.
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