In 1963, young American Dian Fossey spent all her savings and took out a loan to realize her dreamto go to Africa. It soon became her life's mission to study and protect the few mountain gorillas left on Earth. Fossey had no experience or formal scientific training, but she was smart, passionate, and strong-willedand she just happened to meet paleoanthropologist Louis Leakey, who helped her pursue her goal of studying animals in the wild. Fossey set up a research camp and threw herself into tracking and observing mountain gorillas. Over the next 18 years, Fossey got closer to gorillas than any human ever had before. As she learned to mimic their behavior and became accepted by them, Fossey's studies grew into a labor of love and a mission to protect her beloved gorillas from poachers and other threatsno matter what the cost. Sadly, Fossey was murdered at her camp in 1985, and to this day, her death remains a mystery. But her legacy lives on through the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund: In 1973 Fossey recorded only 275 gorillas living in Volcanoes National Park; there are about twice that many today. Fossey's story is one of tragedy, but also passion, science, and preservation. As Jane Goodall, once said, "If Dian had not been there, there might be no mountain gorillas in Rwanda today." Unforgotten is the dramatic conclusion to Silvey's trilogy of biographies on Leakey's "Trimates." With unparalleled storytelling, sidebars, maps, and an award-winning design, Unforgotten will inspire the next generation of budding scientists and conservationists.

 

 

This book is part of a book series called National Geographic Kids .

This book has been graded for interest at 8-12 years.

There are 96 pages in this book. This book was published in 2021 by National Geographic Kids .

National Geographic Kids collaborates to put forth fun and interesting non-fiction for kids. ANITA SILVEY is the author of 100 Best Books for Children and 500 Great Books for Teens and has devoted more than 40 years promoting books that turn young people--and their families--into readers. To do this she has appeared frequently on NPR, The Today Show, 60 Minutes, and radio programs in the United States and Canada to talk about books for children and teenagers. She is the former publisher of children's books for Houghton Mifflin Co. and served as editor-in-chief of Horn Book magazine for 11 years. As Publisher's Weekly has said, "It would be hard to find a more authoritative voice than Anita Silvey. " Anita writes the very popular Children's Book-a-Day Almanac that appears online. She also creates narrative nonfiction for children - The Plant Hunters, I'll Pass for Your Comrade, Henry Knox: Bookseller, Soldier, and Patriot , and an upcoming biography about singer-activist Pete Seeger.