Island: A Story of the Galápagos
Combining geology, biology, and history, this is a story spanning six million years. A fictional Galápagos island makes its first appearance as a volcanic mountain erupting above sea level. After more than a million years, the eruptions dwindle. The island supports many plants and animals, and some develop into unique species. Finally, the island slowly shrinks and sinks beneath the water. In a brief, highly visual epilogue, Darwin (identified only in the appended historical notes) visits the Galápagos Islands in 1835. Back matter includes three separate pages of information (“Charles Darwin and the Galápagos,” “The Galápagos Islands,” and “Endemic Species of the Galápagos”) but no source bibliography. Handsome full-page paintings, horizontal scenes, and many panels of small, square pictures illustrate the gradual changes in island life and in the animals physical features (finches’ beaks, tortoises’ shells) that enable them to survive. While the use of large-print sentences and small, sequential pictures is wonderfully helpful in illustrating concepts such as the island’s changing size and shape, the book’s combination of a relatively short text and a large, complex subject leaves some points unexplained or open to misinterpretation. Still, this is an ambitious introduction with noteworthy illustrations of land and animals in motion. Grades 2-4. --Carolyn Phelan