Overview
At one time of the year, there is frigid cold, almost twenty-four-hour-a-day darkness. But six months later, there is nearly constant sunlight, warmth, and constant activity. Month by month, text and illustrations follow the changes, with a thermometer to trace the changing temperature, and hours of daylight tracked on a calendar.Describes the behavior of thirteen different animals, including caribou, arctic foxes, lemmings, and owls, during one full year on the arctic tundra.
Synopsis
At one time of the year, there is frigid cold, almost twenty-four-hour-a-day darkness. But six months later, there is nearly constant sunlight, warmth, and constant activity. Month by month, text and illustrations follow the changes, with a thermometer to trace the changing temperature, and hours of daylight tracked on a calendar.
School Library Journal
PreS-Gr 3-An attractive, ambitious, but not totally satisfying picture-book overview of arctic tundra life. Each double-page spread focuses on a month, beginning and ending with April. An animal is introduced on the left side; the facing page shows it in a landscape and asks a question intended to invite participation ("How many caribou can you count?"). A thermometer gives the average temperature for the month and a small pie chart indicates the proportion of hours of daylight and darkness on a typical day. The final spread shows a kind of seasonal spectrum with each of the 13 tundra dwellers and the instructions, "Try to see how many of them you can name!" The watercolor illustrations are accurate in their depiction of the animals, but feature a black-outline style that gives the landscapes a two-dimensional look. The audience for the book is questionable. The subject might be of interest to grade-school children but the format and the questions seem geared to preschoolers. However, the proportional pie charts, which look confusingly similar to clock faces, would be difficult for those children to interpret. The text is interesting but oversimplified. While Wadsworth writes that caribou migrate along "well-worn trails they have taken for centuries," biologists and hunters find that, although caribou herds have traditional summer and winter grounds, the routes themselves may vary from year to year. A glossary provides some useful definitions for terms such as "biome" and "permafrost," and some words ("herd," "claws") that are hard to imagine a child not knowing.-Sue Sherif, Fairbanks North Star Borough Public Library, AK Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.