Hoose, Phillip M.
MOONBIRD : A YEAR ON THE WIND WITH THE GREAT SURVIVOR B95
New York : Farrar Straus Giroux, 2012
IL YA
ISBN 0374304688

Rufa red knots are about the size of a robin, and weigh about as much as an apple. Though they are small, they are amazingly athletic. Every year they fly nine thousand miles to their breeding grounds and back, using ancient routes that take them from the tip of South America to the Canadian Arctic. Some of them have flown over 300,000 miles in their lives. That’s the distance to the moon and nearly halfway back! B95 is one of the best known of these “moonbirds.” He has been making this annual migration for over twenty years! In fact, he’s a bit of a celebrity with scientists, conservationists, and other people who are working hard to protect the rufa because unfortunately, the places that B95 and his flock need to rest and refuel have been changing. These environmental changes threaten the rufa with extinction. One of these crucial fueling stations is located on the Delaware Bay, very close to Pennsylvania, where red knots stop every spring to feast on horseshoe crab eggs. Think you don’t care much about a little bird with an orange tag on his leg? Read Moonbird and think again! You will be captivated by B95’s story and inspired to get involved with efforts to protect the B95 and his fellow shorebirds. (Amy Pickett, Ridley High School, Folsom, PA for Pennsylvania Young Reader's Choice Award, 2015)