"The Snow Leopard"

I was searching for new non-fiction books at my school librarian conference this weekend, and I happened upon a new title by Jackie Morris called, "The Snow Leopard." (Great website, BTW, check it out if you have a chance- there are some beautiful pictures of a family of snow leopards.) I can only imagine the enthusiastic squeal I think I let escape when the vendor pulled the book off one of the displays when I queried (for the 20th time) if she had any snow leopard books. This is a fiction book, but with a picture book format. Yes, there is a bit of text, but I've seen some picture books with way more words, and I think this one could easily fit on the picture book shelves. But maybe because it's size is so much larger than the other fiction books on the same shelf, it will stand out and hopefully be checked out more often. (Yes, I did already place it on my order for my library branch.) Of course, I'll also be displaying this book every chance I get, so hopefully it will circulate a lot and at least the local children will be exposed to the snow leopard...

This book shares a more mythical story than presents actual facts about snow leopards. In this allegory, the snow leopard sings a song of protection for her valley in the Himalayan Mountains to hide and secret the people and animals. A sleeping child hears her music and sleeps in peace. But all grow old in time, and the snow leopard changes her song, and the valley is invaded by soldiers looking for gold and slaves. She chases them out by sending nightmares until the soldiers think they are being haunted by demons, and run from the valley. When the sleeping child wakes, the snow leopard teaches her about the lark and the swift, the fox, hare, bharal and all the animals who share the valley, as well as her spirit songs of the earth and of protection. And so the old snow leopard leaps to the stars, and the new snow leopard begins her own song.



In my last snow leopard blog I vowed to help educate, and while I'm not writing my own book, at least I can share this one and still feel like I'm contributing. :)