Old Bill, the Whooping Crane

by Joseph Wharton Lippincott

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1958

Reviews

[Jennifer Ritchie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published in 1958, this book follows the life of Old Bill, a wild whooping crane who winters in Texas and spends his summers in Canada. At the time this book was written, whooping cranes were critically endangered, with only 24 birds known to be alive. There are human characters in the book as well: the wardens who carefully guard the wildlife preserve in Texas and keep track of the cranes, and a poacher who seems determined to shoot a crane for the black market. The writing is pretty good, and the author is clearly very knowledgeable about his subject. There are photographs of real whooping cranes as well as line drawings throughout the book, which were very helpful. I enjoyed following the adventures of Old Bill as he migrates and makes friends and escapes from danger and eventually finds a new mate after his first one died—it was kind of like watching Planet Earth. I also enjoyed the way that the poacher vs. warden conflict was resolved. This is a great book for kids to read to learn about wildlife and conservation in general. After reading it, I looked up the whooping crane on the internet and found out that there are now 800 whooping cranes, so that’s an encouraging success story that shows that the conservation efforts described in this book paid off!