Extinction Encounter: Kat Wolfe Takes the Case by Lauren St. John

"Why is a BBC News helicopter trying to land in your garden?" Harper Lamb asked plaintively from the sofa bed, startling Kat, who'd forgotten that she'd slept over. Kat was discovering that the previous day had left her feeling as if she had been pummeled by grizzly bears. It all came rushing back then: the collapsing cliff, the fiery light she'd seen arc across the sea, the shadow of the enormous shark.

Harper's phone made music in her rucksack. "Look at this message from Dad!" said Harper, passing over her phone.

Hey, kid. Want to be part of something historic? Get yourself to the beach PRONTO. Tell the guards that you and Kat are my assistants.

Overnight the small beach town of Bluebell Bay becomes the center of a media frenzy. The collapse of the cliff face overlooking the tiny beach has revealed an intact skeleton of a 200 million year old dracoraptor, the sunlight catching the suddenly revealed bleached bones of the dragon dinosaur.

And almost instantly the scene of the find is overwhelmed with curiosity seekers, amateur paleontologists, and more nefarious characters planning to advance their fortunes by buying or stealing any of the ancient bones they can get. A celebrity couple, the Swans, blow into town and hire Kat Wolfe to pet-sit their goofy Pomeranian Xena, and Harper Lamb's father, the area paleontologist, soon discovers that part of the jawbone of the just excavated dracoraptor has been stolen from his lab. And Harper's grandfather, the Minister of Defense, pays a suspicious quick visit to the scene.

Something more than a theft of a rare paleontological find is afoot. A centuries-old secret society called the Order of the Dragon, whose followers believe medications made from fossil bones promise eternal life, has its murderous minions on the scene. It's spring holidays, and it's the moment for detectives Wolfe and Lamb to take the case.

In her second Wolfe and Lamb Mystery, Lauren St. John's Kat Wolfe Takes the Case: A Wolfe and Lamb Mystery (Wolfe and Lamb Mysteries) (Farrar, Strous and Giroux, 2019), author St. John again has her intrepid schoolgirl super sleuths who squeeze down trapdoors hidden in he woods, decipher coded messages, sneak through secret underground tunnels, dodge murderous operatives as, with their new associate Kai Wu, uncover the malefactors and return their scenic town to it role as quiet tourist destination, protecting their endangered pets along the way, and ending with a few days still left of their school holiday. Of this entertaining and breathless mystery, School Library Journal says “St. John’s prose is splendid, and her extensive knowledge of animals great and small is evident. . .A complex mystery with well-placed red herrings, important reminders about animal care and conservation, and appealing protagonists make this a recommended purchase.”

Notable author of many mystery adventures for middle readers, Lauren St. John's first book in this series is Kat Wolfe Takes the Case (Wolfe and Lamb).

An Unlikely Mountain Lion: Puma Dreams by Tony Johnston

My gram says everyone needs at least one dream.

Mine is to see a puma.

Gram calls that a dream that may not ever happen.

She says pumas are elusive as a handful of wind.

Her grandmother tells her that pumas are dwindling, wary of being hunted down, keeping to secret places and blending in with the landscape. But the girl has a plan.

I invest my allowance money in a salt lick.

Now I wait.

Time and seasons pass, and the girl watches. Many animals come to the lick, from elk to little birds with tiny beaks. One time the girl finds puma tracks--almost as big as her hand, but the golden shape eludes her. But she doesn't give up looking. And one morning while she's eating oatmeal, her back to the window, she feels it.

My skin begins to prickle.

And it happens. She sees her puma at last.

For me, the puma will always be there.

In her Puma Dreams (Simon and Schuster, 2019), notable author Tony Johnston's story encompasses wistful wishing, nature lore about endangered animals, the value of perseverance, and the awe inherent in being in the presence of a rare and beautiful wild animal in a satisfying story of hope fulfilled and lessons learned. The enchantingly expressive illustrations of Jim LeMarche capture the wide views of the western landscape and what the story calls the "long dreams" of its main character in a way that put the reader deep into the beauty of Johnston's sure-footed storytelling.

An informational section "About the Puma" and a list of sites devoted to puma preservation are appended.

Going with the Floe! Sea Bear: A Journey for Survival by Lindsay Moore

Polar bears are patient beasts,
as patient as glaciers.

A female polar bear rides the currents bearing a large chunk of ice toward the Arctic coast. For her, this journey is no pleasure trip. She has to survive as the ice mass melts into an shrinking ice floe. Her journey is not just for herself, but for her unborn cubs, who need to be born in a den on land. When the floe melts from under her, she knows what she has to do.

I am a sea bear... meant to paddle.
I swim with narwhals...
and glide under whales...

The second night the waves grow in height and the wind in wildness.

There's nothing left to do but swim.

And swim she does, finally pulling herself onto shore after three days of swimming. But spring melt means summer is coming. Summer is a lean season for polar bears, while the seals grow fat at sea, and the mother bear tries to feed her fast growing cubs, knowing that summer always ends soon in the Arctic, and she must teach them the ancient ways of patience.

Lindsay Moore's brand-new Sea Bear: A Journey for Survival (Greenwillow Books, 2019) is a lovely, lyrical and hopeful look at the dilemma of Arctic animals caught in a food web that is threatened by changing climate. In a sweetly-told nonfiction picture book, Moore's beautifully layered blue-green multiple media--watercolor, colored pencil, crayon, and ink--are superbly executed, and the book's design is perfect for its picturesque subject. The author also includes a useful appendix for young nature science lovers.