When Beavers Flew bookcover

When Beavers Flew

An Incredible True Story of Rescue and Relocation

Kristen Tracy 

(Author)

Luisa Uribe 

(Illustrator)
4.9/5.0
21,000+ Reviews
Bookshop.org has the highest-rated customer service of any bookstore in the world

Description

This fascinating picture book tells the unique, quirky, and true story of how one man in Idaho saved 76 beavers from destroying a town by parachuting them into uninhabited wetlands.

In 1948, the town of McCall, Idaho was growing rapidly. World War II was over, and the little town tucked away in the mountains began to boom. There was only one problem. As the town expanded, they found beavers everywhere. A beaver here, a beaver there, and it didn’t take long to realize that humans and beavers weren’t great cohabitators. But one clever and resourceful Fish and Game Warden named Elmo Heter had an idea.

Heter knew that the beavers were integral to the wetlands, so keeping the well-being of the beavers in mind he set out to find a way to relocate them. After a few failed attempts, he finally landed on a wild idea… parachutes. Using a surplus of parachutes left over from WWII and creating a special box with air holes designed to pop open when it hit the ground, Heter devised a way to parachute the beavers into Idaho’s backcountry, an area that beavers hadn’t inhabited in decades.

Kirsten Tracy’s fascinating and playful nonfiction text pairs beautifully with Luisa Uribe’s detailed illustrations to bring this compelling true story to life.

Product Details

PublisherRandom House Studio
Publish DateJuly 23, 2024
Pages40
LanguageEnglish
TypeBook iconHardback
EAN/UPC9780593647523
Dimensions11.3 X 9.4 X 0.5 inches | 1.1 pounds
BISAC Categories: Kids, Kids, Kids

About the Author

Kristen Tracy grew up in a tiny town in Idaho near Yellowstone Park surrounded by untamed and fascinating animals.  She is a poet and YA author and has recently started writing picture books. Her debut picture book A Cub Story was published in 2021. Kristen Tracy young adult novels include Lost It, Camille McPhee Fell Under the Bus, Hung Up, and Project Unpopular. She won the Emily Dickinson First Book Award from the Poetry Foundation for her collection Half-Hazard.

Luisa Uribe is the illustrator of Areli is a Dreamer, which was named a best book of the year from Kirkus, NYPL and Booklist, and My Brother is Away that received three starred reviews and was a Charlotte Huck honor book and a Charlotte Zolotow honor book. She lives in Bogotá, Colombia, with her partner and two cats.

Reviews

★ "This book explores ingenuity, solving problems, group efforts, and perfecting an idea. The art.... is soft and engaging. Reading this book prior to engaging in experiments is like providing a blueprint for the scientific method." —School Library Journal, starred review

"A celebration of an early environmental success." —Kirkus Reviews

"The presentation of the story [is] a heroic one....will prompt discussion around environmental conservation and human/animal coexistence." —The Bulletin

Earn by promoting books

Earn money by sharing your favorite books through our Affiliate program.sign up to affiliate program link
Become an affiliate