The Journey: Stories of Migration
Grade 3-5–Rylants clear descriptions are matched with expansive, semi-realistic paintings of different animals and the terrain through which they travel. Locusts, monarch butterflies, gray whales, American silver eels, caribou, and Arctic terns are presented as ...miracles in motion. Rylant mentions the incomplete understanding of science about how animals navigate the extreme distances and habitat shifts in their complex journeys. There are no maps depicting routes or location. Often, they are stated in broad terms: the gray whales go from the Arctic Circle down the west coast to Mexico, and the monarchs go from the northern United States and Canada down to California or Mexico on the one coast or Florida on the other with no specific southern locations. The Sargasso Sea, where the eels begin life, the tundra of the caribou, or the unspecified African regions invaded by the locusts may be dim realities for some readers. No acknowledgment of scientific sources is offered. Most of the animal portraits are reasonable approximations (the enlarged, hard-edge locusts have a mechanical feel), and the realistic stories will be enjoyed by those who favor books about real animals. They will also serve well as read-aloud introductions to classroom units on migration.–Margaret Bush, Simmons College, BostonCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.