ENCANTADO: PINK DOLPHIN OF THE AMAZON

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Montgomery, Sy. 2002. Encantado: Pink Dolphin of the Amazon. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN 0618131035

2. PLOT SUMMARY
In Encantado, Sy Montgomery takes the reader on a magical journey through the Amazon to find the mysterious Encantado, or pink dolphin. Readers are led through the rainforest rivers in search of this magical creature, but on the way, they discover many interesting facts about the Amazon basin. Readers take a canoe trip along with tour guide, Moises Chavez, and uncover legends about the Encantado, as well as meet up with many new creatures and people.

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Montgomery’s relaxed, second-person writing style invites readers to immediately immerse themselves in a canoe trip along the Amazon River and its tributaries. Readers are easily able to picture themselves along for the scientific journey of a life time due to the photographs by Dianne Taylor-Snow. One of the best parts of this book is that a reader might pick it up thinking that it is just about dolphins, but it is much more. Readers can learn that dolphins are in fact whales, but they can also learn about how locals are protecting the Amazon from destruction. Montgomery introduces many new types of animals, such as caimans and piranhas, as well as different plants that can be found in the Amazon.

Reading the book can be difficult at times due to the fact that Montgomery can skip around from subject to subject and that pictures on pages often do not correspond with the text on that page. A map at the front of the book, instead of seemingly randomly placed in the middle, would have been a helpful reference point, but readers are still able to understand the main points of the book and will find it interesting that Montgomery actually took this exact trip before writing the book. Another great source of enjoyment are the Amazon facts at the end of the book.

4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S)
Starred review in SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL: "The author's sense of wonder at this spectacular environment and this unusual animal is infectious and makes for a nonfiction title that inspires as it informs."
Starred review in BOOKLIST: “children with a taste for adventure will enjoy this enthusiastic field trip to the rainforest and chance meetings with everything from cute monkeys to stinging black ants.”

5. CONNECTIONS
This would be a great book to connect with a science lesson about the Amazon
Have students create their own journey through the Amazon by researching another animal and writing a story
Other animal books by Sy Montgomery:
Montgomery, Sy. Search for the Golden Moon Bear. ISBN 0618356509
Montgomery, Sy. Quest for the Tree Kangaroo: An Expedition to the Cloud Forest of New Guinea. ISBN 0618496416
Montgomery, Sy. The Man-Eating Tigers of Sundarbans. ISBN 0618494901