"We risk losing all this magnificence before we begin to understand it," writes Katherine Rundell in Vanishing Treasures. In her bestiary of 23 extraordinary, endangered creatures, Rundell (Impossible Creatures), an award-winning children's author, reveals wonders of the world that humans might still be able to protect. She illuminates this collection of essays with fable, legend, and truth stranger than fiction, passionately arguing that as "we have lost more than half of all wild things that lived.... The time to fight, with all our ingenuity and tenacity, and love and fury, is now."
Rundell finds wonder and inspiration in wombats and raccoons, as well as primordial Greenland sharks and iridescent golden moles. Furthermore, she traces the incredible feats of evolution, the survivorship, and the adaptability that have kept these creatures alive in an ever more aggressive and changing world. She describes how each animal has been in some way a part of the human imagination, like how wolves have haunted our fears and fantasies.
The last entry is "The Human," hammering home how people are part of the marvels of the world, and the only ones who can actively do something to stop these "treasures" from vanishing off the face of the earth. In her author's note, Rundell follows up with steps that individuals can take to be part of an effort in saving these--and other creatures. Although it is a sobering glimpse at the destruction humanity has wrought on other living things, Vanishing Treasures is ultimately an uplifting and inspiring exploration of the wonder left in the world and how humanity can fit within it, and add to its extraordinary quality. --Michelle Anya Anjirbag, freelance reviewer