A safe home for manatees Book

Only three months old, a baby manatee nuzzles under his 1200-pound mother's flipper for a drink of her rich milk. Soon they will migrate to find more food and a warm place to spend the winter. but, on the way, they will have to dodge speedboats, swim through locks, and endure polluted waters. These gentle giants have roamed tropical lagoons and rivers for almost fifty million years, yet today there are fewer than 3,000 Florida manatees. The reason? Their habitat is disappearing.

Priscilla Belz Jenkins and Martin Classen clearly explain what makes up a habitat and what is happening to the manatees as their habitat is destroyed.

Author Biography: Priscilla Belz Jenkins is the author of two other books in the Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science series: A Nest Full of Eggs, illustrated by Lizzy Rockwell, and Falcons Nest on Skyscrapers, illustrated by Megan Lloyd. Ms. Jenkins lives in San Rafael, CA.

Martin Classen has illustrated Tide Pools by Ronald Rood. He lives in the Bronx, NY.

Describes the disappearing habitat of the Florida manatee as an introduction to the idea that each animal needs a specific place to live.