The Tragic Tale of the Great Auk

• The Tragic Tale of the Great Auk is the 2017 winner of the $30K TD Canadian Children's Literature Award

For hundreds of thousands of years Great Auks thrived in the icy seas of the North Atlantic, bobbing on the waves, diving for fish and struggling up onto rocky shores to mate and hatch their fluffy chicks. But by 1844, not a single one of these magnificent birds was alive.

• How Jan Thornhill wrote a picture book about the extinct great auk

In this stunningly illustrated nonfiction picture book, award-winning author and illustrator Jan Thornhill tells the tragic story of these birds that "weighed as much as a sack of potatoes and stood as tall as a preteen's waist."Their demise came about in part because of their anatomy. They could swim swiftly underwater, but their small wings meant they couldn't fly and their feet were so far back on their bodies, they couldn't walk very well. Still the birds managed to escape their predators much of the time...until humans became seafarers.

• 4 facts about the great auk that didn't make it into Jan Thornhill's picture book about the extinct bird

Great Auks were pursued first by Vikings, then by Inuit, Beothuk and finally European hunters. Their numbers rapidly dwindled. They became collectors'items their skins were stuffed for museums, to be displayed along with their beautiful eggs. Although undeniably tragic, the final demise of the Great Auk led to the birth of the conservation movement. Laws were eventually passed to prevent the killing of birds during the nesting seasonand similar laws were later extended to other wildlife species. (From Groundwood Books)

• Jan Thornhill brings the great auk back to the Atlantic for Halifax's TD Kids Book Club