Francine Jacobs

Lonesome George's story is told in the present tense as George goes about his day on Pinta Island, finding food, napping in the shade, letting finches clean insects off of him, and looking - unsuccessfully - for a mate. When a fisherman brings goats to Pinta, they eat everything, sending the tortoises to high, dangerous ground to search for food. Over the years, the goat population explodes from three to 30,000; wardens come from the Galapagos National Park to save Pinta's plants by shooting the goats(!). The wardens are amazed to find George, and transport him to a research station, where keepers guess him to be about 60 years old. Tortoises can live to be 150, so George isn't too old - but there's still no female Pinta tortoise to mate with. "Scientists haven't given up trying to find George a mate," the story ends, but George died in 2012. Back matter includes "About giant tortoises" and a photo of the author at the research station.

Realistic illustrations in gouache accompany the significant amount of text. Front and back endpapers show a map of the Galapagos Islands, with an inset of South America.… (mehr)