“You shouldn’t touch animals in the wild,” Kayla said. “It can be dangerous. They could hurt you, or you could hurt them. The aquarium chooses animals that are safe for the touch tank, and the tank gives them places to hide if they feel shy. The workers also keep the tank clean and watch for any sign of disease.”

  They made their way into a glass tunnel. On the other side of the glass, water filled a huge tank. It felt like they were underwater with the fish! This tank held larger animals. Some of the fish were as long as a person was tall. At the bottom, crabs scuttled between sea urchins and coral.

  Violet pointed through the glass. “Oh, that one is pretty. It looks like an orca, but it’s too small. Is it a baby?”

  “Hector’s dolphins are the smallest marine dolphins in the world,” Kayla said. “They are very rare and very endangered.”

  Benny frowned. “Are they in-dangered from people?”

  “The word is endangered,” Jessie said.

  “Endangered means a species is at very great risk,” Kayla said. “Only about seven thousand Hector’s dolphins still live in the wild. If we don’t help them, they might all die out. Then they would be all gone—extinct.”

  “That’s awful,” Benny said.

  “Don’t worry, Benny,” said Henry. “Lots of people help protect animals like this. Right, Kayla?”

  “That’s right!” Kayla said. “There are many conservation groups that help. I work with one called Protectors of Animals Worldwide, or PAW.”

  Violet watched the dolphin as it swooped through the water. It swam close to the glass. Then it turned on its side, flicked its tail, and zipped away. It circled back around and wiggled as it passed by once more.

  “It’s dancing!” Benny said. He went up to the glass and started wiggling, trying to copy the dolphin’s moves.

  “You called this a marine dolphin,” Violet said. “Marine means it lives in the ocean, right?”

  “That’s right,” Kayla said. “Most dolphins live in the ocean, but a few live in rivers.”

  Benny spun around. “Will we see one of these dolphins in the ocean?”

  “I don’t think so.” Kayla smiled. “Hector’s dolphins live near New Zealand.”

  “That’s on the other side of the world,” Henry explained.

  Benny sighed. “That’s a long way. Maybe someday we can go.”

  “That would be quite an adventure,” Grandfather said.

  “I like adventures!” Benny raised his arms over his head as a sea turtle swam up to the glass. It looked like it wondered what Benny was doing. “We’ve had a lot of adventures,” Benny told Kayla.

  “Oh really?” she asked.

  “It’s true,” Henry said. “We like to help people and solve mysteries.”

  “We like to help animals too,” Violet added.

  “I try to help animals,” Kayla said. “I don’t think I’ve ever solved a mystery though.”

  Benny smiled up at her. “That’s okay. Maybe we’ll find one for you while we’re here.”

  Kayla laughed.

  Grandfather said, “Don’t be surprised if it happens. My grandkids always find something to get into.”

  Jessie pulled out her notebook. “Can you tell me more about conservation? It means trying to protect nature, right?”

  Kayla nodded. “PAW has programs around the world. We try to save animal species, and that means we have to protect the land. After all, you can’t protect animals if they don’t have a safe and healthy place to live. Everything in nature is connected.”

  “What do you mean?” Benny asked.

  “Say a factory dumps chemicals onto the ground,” Kayla said. “The chemicals can wash into a river. They can flow into lakes or all the way to the ocean. What happens if you drop a plastic bag outside? It might blow miles and miles to the coast. It could get into the water and choke a sea turtle or seal.”

  “That’s terrible,” Violet said.

  “We’re always careful to throw away our garbage,” Henry said.

  “That’s important,” Kayla said. “Environmental groups like mine try to educate people on things like that. We work with local communities. We work with governments. Like I said, everything is connected. People are part of that web.”

  In the next room, penguins played in a large area behind glass. They waddled across rocks and dove into a pool of water. Through the glass, visitors could see them swimming underwater. Violet plopped down cross-legged. She held her sketchbook in her lap and drew.

  “We have African penguins and rockhoppers,” Kayla said. “These are the African penguins. Rockhoppers have funny yellow feathers on their heads.”

  “They’re adorable,” Jessie said. “Are they endangered?”

  “Sadly, yes,” Kayla said. “Of the eighteen species of penguin, ten are endangered. Others are vulnerable. That means they aren’t endangered yet, but there aren’t as many as we’d like. Rockhopper penguins are vulnerable. African penguins are endangered.”

  The group spent some time watching the penguins, then Kayla led them outside, where a railing surrounded a huge pool. Inside were the biggest animals yet. “These are beluga whales,” Kayla said. “They are found around Alaska and other northern areas.”

  The Aldens watched the three pale gray whales swim. One came close to peer at them. It had a bulging, rounded forehead. Its mouth seemed to be smiling.

  “I thought whales were really, really big,” Benny said.

  “These are one of the smaller whale species,” Kayla said.

  Jessie read the sign. “They’re still eleven to fifteen feet long. That’s twice as long as Grandfather is tall, and the adults weigh more than one thousand pounds!” She made notes.

  “I bet they have to eat a lot.” Benny rubbed his stomach. “Like me.”

  “They are so cute!” said Violet.

  Kayla leaned her elbows on the railing. “They sure are,” she said. “I love coming to the aquarium to see the whales. But we can’t forget about the animals that aren’t as popular or as cute. All species are important.”

  “Right.” Jessie looked up from her notebook. She thought she understood what Kayla was saying now. “Like you said, we are all connected. Bees pollinate many foods we eat. Snakes eat mice that would eat farmers’ grain. Some people don’t like bees or snakes, but we need those animals too.”

  “Every animal should be protected.” Henry agreed. “Not only the biggest or cutest ones. I’d like to know how to help those other animals too.”

  The other children nodded.

  Kayla smiled. “I have just the idea. But we’ll have to leave the aquarium. Are you ready for a new adventure?”

  “Always!” Benny said. “But maybe lunch and then an adventure, okay?” He rubbed his stomach again. “I’m hungry!”

  GERTRUDE CHANDLER WARNER discovered when she was teaching that many readers who like an exciting story could find no books that were both easy and fun to read. She decided to try to meet this need, and her first book, The Boxcar Children, quickly proved she had succeeded.

  Miss Warner drew on her own experiences to write the mystery. As a child she spent hours watching trains go by on the tracks opposite her family home. She often dreamed about what it would be like to set up housekeeping in a caboose or freight car—the situation the Alden children find themselves in.

  While the mystery element is central to each of Miss Warner’s books, she never thought of them as strictly juvenile mysteries. She liked to stress the Aldens’ independence and resourcefulness and their solid New England devotion to using up and making do. The Aldens go about most of their adventures with as little adult supervision as possible—something else that delights young readers.

  Miss Warner lived in Putnam, Connecticut, until her death in 1979. During her lifetime, she received hundreds of letters from girls and boys telling her how much they liked her books.

 

 

  Gertrude Chandler Warner, The Raptor Rescue

 

 

  Thank you for reading books on GrayCity.Net
Share this book with friends