Annal:2008 Golden Kite Nonfiction Award
From AwardAnnals
Results of the Golden Kite Nonfiction Award in the year 2008. For a ranked list of books, try an honor roll:
- Golden Kite Nonfiction Award
- Children's books
- Children's authors
- Young Adult books
- Young Adult authors
- <–2007
- Golden Kite Award
- –end–
A Life in the Wild: George Schaller's Struggle to Save the Last Great Beasts
- 2008 Golden Kite-nonfiction winner
- Score: 10.58
For more than fifty years, explorer-naturalist George Schaller has been on a mission: to save the world’s great wild beasts and their environments. In this compelling biography, illustrated with Schaller’s own striking photographs, Pamela S. Turner examines the amazing life and groundbreaking work of the man International Wildlife calls “the world’s foremost field biologist.” Schaller’s landmark research revolutionalized field biology, demonstrating that it is possible to study dangerous animals in their own habitats: mountain gorillas in Central Africa, predatory tigers in India, mysterious snow leopards in the Himalayas, and many others. His insights about species and environment led him to successfully advocate for the protection of over 190,000 square miles of wilderness around the world—an area the size of Spain.
Packed with grand adventure, intriguing science, dramatic photographs, and Schaller’s own breathtaking descriptions of the natural world and the animals who live in it, this full-color biography brilliantly captures the spirit and passion of George Schaller’s unusual—and inspiring—life in the wild.
The Mysterious Universe: Supernovae, Dark Energy, and Black Holes
- 2008 Golden Kite-nonfiction honor
- Score: 6.58
The universe is rapidly expanding. Of that much scientists are certain. But how fast? And with what implications regarding the fate of the universe?
Ellen Jackson and Nic Bishop follow Dr. Alex Fillippenko and his High-Z Supernova Search Team to Mauna Kea volcano in Hawaii, where they will study space phenomena and look for supernovae, dying stars that explode with the power of billions of hydrogen bombs. Dr. Fillippenko looks for black holes—areas in space with such a strong gravitational pull that no matter or energy can escape from them—with his robotic telescope. And they study the effects of dark energy, the mysterious force that scientists believe is pushing the universe apart, causing its constant and accelerating expansion.
