Library

The Library category gathers the titles that have picked up the most formal recognition from librarians and library associations, represented here by Can We Save the Tiger?, which won a 2011 Boston Globe–Horn Book Honor for nonfiction and was named an ALA Notable Children’s Book the following year. It also appeared on School Library Journal’s and Kirkus’s Best Books of 2011 lists and won the NSTA/CBC Outstanding Science Trade Book award.

That’s a fairly unusual amount of recognition for a single picture book, and it reflects what the book is actually doing: using the tiger as an entry point into a broader look at extinction and recovery, covering lesser-known species like ground iguanas and white-rumped vultures alongside it. Librarians building conservation or science collections have consistently picked it out as a title worth shelving.

Library recognition tends to follow books that hold up under repeat readings and classroom use, and Can We Save the Tiger? has stayed in print and in circulation well past its 2011 publication date partly for that reason. Its structure, moving between the tiger and lesser-known species like the partula snail, gives librarians a single title that can anchor a broader conservation unit rather than covering just one animal.

A library collection built around Can We Save the Tiger? tends to pair naturally with other conservation-focused nonfiction, since the book’s structure, moving between a well-known animal and several obscure ones, gives a librarian a ready-made way to introduce less familiar species without a full standalone unit for each. That flexibility is part of why it’s stayed a common pick for library conservation displays well past its original publication year. Several of the awards listed above came in the same two-year stretch, 2011 and 2012, which reviewers at the time noted was an unusually strong period for conservation-themed nonfiction picture books generally, with Can We Save the Tiger? frequently cited as one of the standouts.