Your task for today is to name ANY of your favorite non-fiction books that you haven’t already praised here during our week-long run of books answering the questions "WHO?," "WHAT?", "WHEN?", "WHERE?", and "HOW?".

At the start of the week I mentioned one book that I think fits all of these questions in equal measure — The Race to Save the Lord God Bird by Phillip Hoose (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2004, edited by the wonderful Melanie Kroupa). This is without a doubt one of my favorite non-fiction books for any group, EVER. Through it I learned WHO was responsible for the decline of one great bird species, WHAT major and minor events and/or actions led to the destruction of that species’ habitat and its subsequent decline, WHEN the species’ population was in abundance (and when it wasn’t) in addition to WHAT the world looked like at that time, WHY people have long admired and sought out this bird (or any bird for that matter), and HOW a species can (and possibly was) wiped out of existence. What do sewing machines have to do with woodpeckers? I learned that here. What was it like to have been the last living person (or so he thought…) to see an Ivory Billed Woodpecker on the wing? I learned that here too.

I picked up this book not so much because I was interested in the topic but because I thought I "should" read it, based on the rave reviews it was getting from other book lovers whose opinions I trust. I soon found that I couldn’t put it down and by the end I was deeply, passionately invested in the subject about which I was reading. I came away from it with a better understanding of our planet, its species, and the difficulties we face in our role as the protectors of both.

It’s amazing, isn’t it, what one little book can do for us, its readers? Help me celebrate that by adding to the list of recommendations we’ve been compiling over the course of this week. Sing the praises of your non-fiction favorites here — whatever their subjects may be.