Looking for Seabirds: Journal from an Alaskan Voyage (Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K-12)
Gr. 4-6. The natural history diarist who earned a Sibert Honor forMy Season with Penguins: An Antarctic Journal(2000) now invites readers to join her aboard theAlpha Helix, a research vessel, on a month-long expedition to the Aleutian Islands in Alaska. She is there to count seabirds, whose population density can help researchers gauge the ocean's health. The birds involved here probably won't garner the same instant enthusiasm among young children as waddling, tuxedoed penguins, and Webb's shipboard vantage point precludes the hands-on interactions that enlivened her first book. However, the text and accompanying watercolors are just as brimming with gritty details (it's wise not to serve spherical foods on a boat, because they roll off the plate), and children will feel Webb's delight in the moments that make the rigors of field research worth it: a glimpse of Crested Auklets "like something out of Dr. Seuss' imagination" or an albatross that commutes from Hawaii to Alaska to collect food, then backtracks 5,600 miles to nourish its waiting chicks.Jennifer MattsonCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved