Building a Beak: How a Toucan's Rescue Inspired the World
by Becca McMurdie; illus. by Diana Hernández
32 pages; ages 4-8
Page Street Kids, 2024
theme: engineering, birds, kindness
High in the Costa Rican treetops, a toucan named Grecia soared from branch to branch…
She did the regular things toucans do: pick berries, preen her feathers, sing, and tuck her beak next to her wing at night to sleep. Until humans hurt her, breaking her beak. Fortunately some kind-hearted people found her and took her to a place where she could be protected. But a toucan can’t survive without a beak. Enter an engineer with a 3-D printer and people around the world who wanted to help save Grecia.
What I like about this book: I can’t resist a story of kindness overcoming adversity, especially when scientists use the technology they have to try a novel solution. In this case, printing an artificial beak. I love how author Becca McMurdie shows the community of engineers and scientists, bird experts, the rescue center staff, and children came together to help an injured toucan. And I like how illustrator Diana Hernandez included an engineering diagram of the new beak. In back matter, Becca discusses why stories like this are important. Reading and discussing these kinds of stories helps build awareness about the importance of protecting habitats (in this case the rainforest) and the animals that live there, she says.
Becca mentioned that she had gone to Costa Rica for a couple months and learned about Grecia while she was there. So of course I had Questions!
Me: Hi Becca. Can you tell us a bit about what you were doing while in Costa Rica?
Becca: I was working for a charter school network in New York City that allowed all staff members to take a two-month sabbatical after every 10 years of service to the organization. I decided to spend my two months living in a small cabin in the Monteverde Cloud Forest, volunteering at a local school there, going on nature walks daily, and doing lots of writing. Why not!?
Me: Why not indeed! So how did you learn about Grecia?
Becca: While I was in Monteverde, I went on several bird watching tours. On my first tour, I saw a toucan for the first time. It was perched on top of a branch singing proudly. So beautiful! The guide then told me that a few years prior, there was a toucan in Costa Rica who was injured and lost its beak, but a prosthetic beak was made for it. I was intrigued! He couldn’t remember all of the details, but said that everyone in Costa Rica had heard about it at the time, and had been in the news. I went back to my cabin that night and did an internet search to learn about this toucan with the prosthetic beak. I learned her name was Grecia, that a 3D printer had been used to create the beak, and, even more impressively, that the event sparked a wildlife protection movement that successfully led to legal protection of the rainforest! Many of the articles I read were in Spanish, from local Costa Rican news sources. I found out that the name of the rescue center that saved Grecia was Rescate Wildlife Rescue Center. It was about three hours from where I was staying. Bravely, and humbly, I emailed them to tell them how I had learned of Grecia, and that I wrote children’s books (albeit no published books and no agent, at the time) and that I would love to speak with someone on the rescue team, either via email, Zoom or in-person, if they’d be interested and open to that. To my delight, they replied with enthusiasm and invited me to visit!
Me: I have to know more about your visit to the rescue center to meet Grecia and their caretakers and scientists.
Becca: During my visit I was escorted by one of the veterinary technicians on Grecia’s team, and met several other caretakers and scientists as well. I got a behind-the-scenes tour of their emergency animal rescue department. I could look into the enclosures through one-way viewing glass. It’s important to minimize the animals’ contact with humans, so they maintain their natural instincts and be returned to the wild after they are rehabilitated. I saw lots of baby monkeys, a few grown-up monkeys, sloths, many beautiful birds and even an ocelot. Some of the animals had been hit by cars or injured on power lines. As one of the largest rescue centers in the country, Rescate receives several new injured or orphaned animals every single day, arriving from all around Costa Rica. Many of them require weeks, if not months, of care before they can be released. Animals that cannot be released, either because their injuries will require long-term treatment or because they no longer have natural instincts needed to survive in the wild, remain in the center’s lifetime animal sanctuary, which is open to the public. That’s where Grecia lived after she received her new beak. Unfortunately, I did not get to meet Grecia. She passed away of natural causes just a month before my visit. (She did live a full life-span, comparable to those of most wild toucans.) Rescate Wildlife Rescue Center is truly an amazing place. You can learn more about them at www.rescatewildlife.org. I donate a portion of the proceeds of Building a Beak, to the organization.
Beyond the Books:
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| By Bernard Dupont - Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0 |
Read about Grecia here at NPR
Make a paper plate toucan. Here's how.
Becca is a member of #STEAMTeam2024. You can find out more about her at her website,
Today we’re joining Perfect Picture Book Friday. It’s a wonderful gathering where bloggers share great picture books at Susanna Leonard Hill's website. Review copy provided by the author.
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