Czech / Czech Republic
Atlas vyhubených živočichů
(Atlas of vanished animals)
Malý, Radek
(text)
Grbavčic, Jiří
(illus.)
Dvorský, Pavel
(illus.)
Praha: Albatros, 2019. – 87 p.
ISBN 978-80-00-05360-8
Animal extinction | Environmental awareness | Atlas | Non-fiction
Reading age: 9+
White Ravens issue: 2020
“And they all lived happily ever after”. The fairy-tale adage applies to none of the 41 creatures introduced in this atlas. Mammoth, dodo, and Neanderthal man: all extinct. They only live on in the descriptions of Radek Malý and the colourful, whole-page illustrations by Jiří Grbavčic and Pavel Dvorský. The detailed, gorgeous depictions and descriptions of species and their fates can only serve as a reminder and as a warning of how much life has already disappeared from the Earth. The atlas also shows that the disappearances continue. Page by page it nears the present day and ultimately introduces creatures that still existed a few years ago, like the Zanzibar leopard (until 1996), the Pyrenean ibex (until 2000) or the Chinese river dolphin (until 2007). In the end, we are left with a bitter question: Which creature will next be added to this beautiful, sad atlas? [KW]