★NSTA Outstanding Science Trade Book
★Georgia Camellia Nonfiction Children's Book award list
★Alabama Camelia Children’s Choice Reading List
★This series now includes biographies of a mammal, bird, arachnid (spider), amphibian, and reptile. These are biographies of a single animal that is named and has interacted with humans somehow.

5 titles in this series:
Abayomi, the Brazilian Puma
Nefertiti, the Spidernaut
Rosie, the Ribeter
Wisdom, the Midway Albatross
Diego, the Giant Galapagos Tortoise: Saving a Species from Extinction

In 1963, Ecuador established a national park to protect the Galapagos Islands. When they did a census, scientists found only 14 individuals of the Española Island tortoises. The species was almost extinct. Then, they found one more Española tortoise in the San Diego zoo, whom they named Diego, and he was brought back to the Galapagos for a breeding program.
In 2020, Diego returned to his home island to join over 2500 other Española tortoises. This is the story of one of the most successful breeding programs in scientific history. This amazing giant tortoise species was saved by fifty years of hard work by scientists and hundreds of volunteers.
Read the story of Diego, the giant Galapagos tortoise who returned home after about 100 years after he was captured. He will now live out his life with his children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren on the island of his birth.

About the Author
Storyteller, writing teacher, Queen of Revisions, and founder of Mims House (www.mimshouse.com) publisher, Darcy Pattison (darcypattison.com/about) has been published in nine languages. Her books, published with Harcourt, Philomel/Penguin, Harpercollins, Arbordale, and Mims House have received recognition for excellence with starred reviews in Kirkus, BCCB and PW. Three nonfiction nature books have been honored as National Science Teacher's Association Outstanding Science Trade books. The Journey of Oliver K. Woodman (Harcourt) received an Irma Simonton Black and James H. Black Award for Excellence in Children's Literature Honor Book award and has been published in a Houghton Mifflin textbook. The Nantucket Sea Monster (Mims House) is a Junior Library Guild Selection, and a 2018 NCTE Notable Children's Book in Language Arts. She's the 2007 recipient of the Arkansas Governor's Arts Award for Individual Artist for her work in children's literature.