EXTINCTOPEDIA

A wide-angled survey of threatened and recently extinct animals worldwide, originally published in Italian.

In a random jumble of entries more suitable for dipping than systematic reading or research, quick introductions to dozens of rare or vanished creatures mingle with mini-disquisitions on topics from wunderkammer and the official Red List of Threatened Species to examples of creatures once but wrongly believed extinct or, conversely, entirely new to scientists. If the narrative sometimes has a tossed-off quality, the art definitely doesn’t. Along with crafting arrays of expertly depicted, naturally posed wildlife portraits in monochrome and pale colors, Alcini tucks in several fanciful or trenchant vignettes, such as a tiny mountain pygmy possum adorably perched on a human thumb, a smuggled pangolin peering out of a suitcase, and the image of a dignified dodo…on a tombstone. There isn’t space for images of all mentioned animals; the illustrator squeezes in only one rare snake for an accompanying commentary that mentions four, one kind of rare tiger next to a tally of eight, and two of four specifically mentioned great apes. Readers’ eyes may at times glaze over at the cascade of abstract names and Latin binomials. Still, as an unusually broad cross-section of species that are going or gone, as well as a graphic demonstration of the beauty and diversity of what we lose when they die out, this will leave a marked impression on young audiences.

An eloquent, if somewhat disorganized, gallery of rarities.