GORILLAS

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Simon, Seymour. 2000. GORILLAS. Harper Collins Publishers. New York: ISBN 0060230363.

2. PLOT SUMMARY

Prolific author, Seymour Simon, takes the reader into the forested areas of Africa to meet the three different species of gorillas. With the aid of fascinating natural photographs, Simon gives detailed descriptions of these gentle giant’s physical characteristics, daily routines, and behavior, especially caring for their young.

Simon also explains to his young readers about the danger these misunderstood animals are in because their land is being scooped up to build farms or obtain forest lumber. Poachers are guilty of killing entire families to obtain bushmeat, gorilla trophies, and baby gorillas to be raised as pets. As a preventative, Simon describes the organizations working to help the gorilla species survive.

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS

GORILLAS is written in child-assessable text that can almost be described as a narrative. Simon does not write a formal book of facts but what seems like a conversation with the reader explaining the lives of these shy, African dwelling anthropoids in a conversation-like style. The author shows the frightening-looking apes with their families in their habitat and depicts them with human-like traits. From cover-to-cover, Simon opens up the lives of the gorillas and gives the reader a glimpse into their daily lives.

The natural full page stunning photographs shown in the book are spellbinding. They show the personalities of these huge animals along with a description of their personalities. Young gorillas “do somersaults, climb trees, and slide down hills on their stomachs. They pretend at biting, chasing, tackling, and wrestling. They seem to have an all around grand time (p. 12)." The silverback, “despite his huge size is patient with the playful youngsters…He allows them to cling to him and pull his hair (p.14)."

Simon helps his reader understand his text by including comparisons. He describes the gorilla’s body as looking “much like a human’s head and body (p. 5).” He explains that mountain gorilla can weigh as much as "ten second-grade children (p.9)." They trot or canter like a horse and their arm spread is “about the distance from the floor to the ceiling in a house (p. 15).” Simon's writing is crafted with sentences such as: “A gorilla has a much bigger stomach than you do (p.10).” Many of the pages describe the similarities and comparisons between gorillas and themselves. This conversational writing style helps draw the reader into the book in a personal way.

Simon helps reader understand the importance of being socially conscience as he first describes the humanness of the Gorilla and their endangerment and then explains how scientists are working to protect their habitats and enforce laws against poaching.

Lacking in this book are text features one often sees in non-fiction text, such as: a table of contents, a map of the animal’s habitat, page headings, a glossary or an index. Simon does, however, help the reader understand the gentle creatures by using child-friendly text, photographs, and words described in context.

4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S)

School Library Journal - The extremely handsome, oversized color photos enhance the readable text and complement it perfectly.

Booklist - The combination of the text and photographs creates a striking, powerful impression. Good for browsing as well as reports.

Horn Book - While the stunning, highly expressive photographs dominate in space and impact, Simon's concise and child-friendly writing means that a fairly full picture of gorilla behavior . . . is amply conveyed...

Children's Literature - This book would be a fine addition to any science library or animal unit. One in a series of books published as a result of a collaboration with the Smithsonian Institution.

Kirkus Reviews – Simon leads the reader to understand how nearly human these gentle creatures are, thereby increasing the sense of obligation to save them by saving their forests. The photographs, most of which are closeups, capture how expressive gorilla faces can be. Who could resist their charm?

Seymour Simon has been honored by many awards for his work including the New York State Knickerbocker Award for Juvenile Literature; the Hope S. Dean Memorial Award from the Boston Public Library; the Eva L. Gordon Award, presented by the American Nature Society, for his contribution to children's science literature; and the Washington Post/Children's Book Guild Award for Non-fiction for the body of his work.

5. CONNECTIONS

Seymour Simon has written hundreds of books similar to GORILLAS. Consider having Simon as a featured author in the classroom gathering his books to read aloud and provide for independent/buddy reading.

Invite the children to read other books on gorillas, such as KOKO'S KITTEN by Dr. Francine Patterson and Ronald Cohn, or GORILLAS by Paul Burgel. The students can utilize a graphic organizer to add new facts to those already discovered.

Learn more about gorillas at the award winning author’s website:
http://www.seymoursimon.com/index.php/blog/tags/tag/Gorillas.
This site contains videos of gorillas in their natural habitat.

Interviews of Simon can be found on the Reading Rockets website at: http://www.readingrockets.org/books/interviews/simon

Have the students create a poster of gorillas to convince poachers to stop the killing. Show the children how to look for appropriate photographs of the animals from the internet. Include facts obtained from Simon’s GORILLAS.

Place one of Simon's pages on an overhead. Have the children create their own headings for the text based on the main idea.

Have the children find out more about the Gorillas' habitats by looking for their homes on a map and learning more about these areas.

Introduce students to Simon's fiction books to show how research can also be integrated into this genre.