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Cougar Crossing

How Hollywood's Celebrity Cougar Helped Build a Bridge for City Wildlife

Illustrated by Alexander Vidal
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About The Book

Discover the amazing true story of P-22, the wild cougar living in Los Angeles, in this inspiring picture book.

P-22, the famed “Hollywood Cougar,” was born in a national park near Los Angeles, California. When it was time for him to leave home and stake a claim to his own territory, he embarked on a perilous journey—somehow crossing sixteen lanes of the world’s worst traffic—to make his home in LA’s Griffith Park, overlooking the famed Hollywood sign. But Griffith Park is a tiny territory for a mountain lion, and P-22’s life has been filled with struggles.

Residents of Los Angeles have embraced this brave cougar as their own and, along with the scientists monitoring P-22, raised money to build a wildlife bridge across Highway 101 to help cougars and other wildlife safely expand their territories and build new homes—ensuring their survival for years to come.

About The Author

Photograph by J. David Pincus
Meeg Pincus

Meeg Pincus, MA, has been a nonfiction writer and editor for over twenty years. In addition to being an author of children’s nonfiction and informational books, she is a humane educator who inspires students to care for people, animals, and the planet. Meeg lives in San Diego.

About The Illustrator

Alexander Vidal

Originally from New Mexico, Alexander Vidal studied cultural anthropology and spent time living in Africa and Asia before starting his career in illustration. Travel, exploration, and a love of animals and wild spaces continue to drive the themes of his work. He is the illustrator of the board book So Many Feet; nonfiction family activity book I Love Birds!: 52 Ways to Wonder, Wander, and Explore Birds with Kids; and picture books Cougar Crossing!, Just You and Me, The Bone Wars, and Trapped in the Tar Pit. He is a graduate of ArtCenter College of Design and lives in Los Angeles.

Product Details

  • Publisher: Beach Lane Books (February 2, 2021)
  • Length: 40 pages
  • ISBN13: 9781534461857
  • Ages: 4 - 8
  • Lexile ® AD650L The Lexile reading levels have been certified by the Lexile developer, MetaMetrics®

Awards and Honors

  • California Young Reader Medal Nominee
  • Kansas NEA Reading Circle List PrimaryTitle
  • Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year Selection Title
  • CBC-NSTA Best STEM Book
  • Cook Prize Winner (Bank Street College of Education)

Resources and Downloads

High Resolution Images

More books from this illustrator: Alexander Vidal