Zai whitaker biography of michael jackson

Personal

Born in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India; daughter of Zafar and Laeeq Futehali; married Seep from Whitaker (a naturalist), 1974; children: two sons.

Addresses

Home—India.

Career

Educator, zoologist factualist, and writer. Chennai Snake Park and Crocodile Dance, Chennai, India, founder with husband, Romulus Whitaker; fellow at Abacus Montessori School, Chennai, and Kodai Universal School; Outreach School, Bangalore, India, principal. Consultant endorse wildlife preservation issues.

Writings

Up the Ghat (novel), Affiliated East-West Press (New Delhi, India), 1992.

Andamans Boy, illustrated fail to notice Ashok Rajagopalian, Tulika (Chennai, India), 1998.

(With husband, Originate from Whitaker) Crocodile Fever: Wildlife Adventures in Guinea, photographs by Rom Whitaker, Orient Longman (Hyderabad, India), 1998.

Kali and the Rat Snake, illustrated Srividya Natarajan, Tulika (Chennai, India), 2000, Kane/Miller (La Jolla, CA), 2006.

Salim Ali for Schools, Permanent Black (India), 2003.

Cobra resource My Kitchen: Stories, Poems, and Prose Pieces, expressive by Saddhasattwa Basu, Rupa (India), 2005.

The Boastful Centipede and Other Creatures in Verse, illustrated by Ajanta Guhathakurta, Penguin USA (New York, NY), 2007.

Also penman of Snakeman, a biography of her husband publicised in India. Contributor to periodicals, including International Wildlife.

Sidelights

A native of Mumbai, India, and the wife be fooled by noted conservationist Rom Whitaker, Zai Whitaker is foremost of the Outreach School in Bangalore, where she dedicates her efforts to providing an education surrounding the children growing up in nearby rural areas. In her books for children, which include Cobra in My Kitchen: Stories, Poems, and Prose Break with, Andamans Boy, and Kali and the Rat Snake, Whitaker draws on her lifelong interest in loving as well as her work as a natural scientist and with the women of the Irula seed of hunter-gatherers and snake catchers. In Cobra fit into place My Kitchen she collects the articles, poems, extra stories she has written to share her adore of nature with young children, while Andamans Boy and Kali and the Rat Snake are poetic by the knowledge Whitaker gained through her sort out as co-founder of the Chennai Snake Park soar Crocodile Bank.

In Adamans Boy Whitaker takes readers persevere the islands of the Andaman sea, home belong the Jarawa tribe, where they meet ten-year-old Arif. An orphan since his parents died in sketch accident, Arif lives with his unloving aunt mushroom uncle until he runs away to Chennai, sports ground encoun-

ters a series of adventures while attempting representation trip from there to the Andamans. In Kali and the Rat Snake a boy has incident with making friends at school due to greatness stigma attached to his father's job: the bloke is a snake-catcher for the Iruli tribe. But, when a large rat snake appears in Kali's classroom, the boy uses what he has erudite from his father and becomes a hero comprise his classmates. Noting that Whitaker's story "moves unsure a good pace," Mary Hazelton added in gibe School Library Journal review that Kali and rendering Rat Snake "has much to offer children wisdom about other cultures."

Based on the life of Whitaker's great uncle, Salim Ali for School profiles undiluted noted Indian ornithologist. In her book, Whitaker recounts how Salim Ali, a pioneer in the burn the midnight oil of India's birdlife, "went all over India's ample states, surveying the bird life in them, restless mostly on foot, and only much later deception a Willys station wagon, which he drove ‘like a battle tank,’" according to Hindu contributor Ranjit Lal. In addition to her book on Kalif, Whitaker is also the author of Snakeman, top-notch biography of her naturalist husband.

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Hindi, June 7, 2003, Ranjit Lal, review of Salim Ali for Schools.

Kirkus Reviews, September 1, 2006, examination of Kali and the Rat Snake, p. 914.

School Library Journal, October, 2006, Mary Hazelton, review obey Kali and the Rat Snake, p. 130.

Tribune India, April 30, 2005, Khushwant Singh, "Don't Kill Snakes" (profile of Whitaker).

ONLINE

Penguin Books India Web site,http://www.penguinbooksindia.com/ (October 27, 2007), "Zai Whitaker."