One Day in the Alpine Tundra [Paperback]

Jean Craighead George (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 52 pages
• Publisher: Scholastic Inc. (1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0439099161
• ISBN-13: 978-0439099165
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 5.1 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.3 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,018,214 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jean Craighead George was born in a family of naturalists. Her father, mother, brothers, aunts and uncles were students of nature. On weekends they camped in the woods near their Washington, D.C. home, climbed trees to study owls, gathered edible plants and made fish hooks from twigs. Her first pet was a turkey vulture. In third grade she began writing and hasn't stopped yet. She has written over 100 books.Her book, Julie of the Wolves won the prestigious Newbery Medal, the American Library Association's award for the most distinguished contribution to literature for children, l973. My Side of the Mountain, the story of a boy and a falcon surviving on a mountain together, was a 1960 Newbery Honor Book. She has also received 20 other awards.She attended Penn State University graduating with a degree in Science and Literature. In the 1940s she was a reporter for The Washington Post and a member of the White House Press Corps. After her children were born she returned to her love of nature and brought owls, robins, mink, sea gulls, tarantulas - 173 wild animals into their home and backyard. These became characters in her books and, although always free to go, they would stay with the family until the sun changed their behavior and they migrated or went off to seek partners of their own kind.When her children, Twig, Craig and Luke, were old enough to carry their own backpacks, they all went to the animals. They climbed mountains, canoed rivers, hiked deserts. Her children learned about nature and Jean came home and to write books. Craig and Luke are now environmental scientists and Twig writes children's books, too.One summer Jean learned that the wolves were friendly, lived in a well-run society and communicated with each other in wolf talk -- sound, sight, posture, scent and coloration. Excited to learn more, she took Luke and went to the Naval Arctic Research Laboratory in Barrow, Alaska, where scientists were studying this remarkable animal. She even talked to the wolves in their own language. With that Julie of the Wolves was born. A little girl walking on the vast lonesome tundra outside Barrow, and a magnificent alpha male wolf, leader of a pack in Denali National Park were the inspiration for the characters in the book. Years later, after many requests from her readers, she wrote the sequels, Julie and Julie's Wolf Pack.She is still traveling and coming home to write. In the last decade she has added two beautiful new dimensions to her words beautiful full-color picture book art by Wendell Minor and others and - music. Jean is collaborating with award-winning composer, Chris Kubie to bring the sounds of nature to her words.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Oh, the weather outside is frightful, August 10, 2005

By 

E. R. Bird "Ramseelbird" (Manhattan, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: One Day in the Alpine Tundra (Paperback)

As a reader, I have an excellent attention span. I can sit down and devour a book, be it a child or adult title, for hours at a time. I am not deficient in my ability to concentrate. I've even read all of Victor Hugo's, "Les Miserables" from cover to cover. So why, I ask you, did I have so much difficulty reading Jean Craighead George's, "One Day In the Alpine Tundra"? I did, you know. I'd sit down to read a passage from the book and find my eyes glazing over and my mind pondering such mundane subjects as, "I like bread. I wonder where I can get some good sourdough?". Then I'd shake myself thoroughly, sit back down to reread the same passage, and once again glaze over. Once you get about halfway through this book, it's an easier read. Until that point, however, you'd better be giving this book to a kid who is fascinated to the depths of their soul by alpine tundra info. Because if a 27-year-old children's librarian can't read five pages without yawning continually, I don't look favorably on your offspring's chances.

The book opens with information about a large boulder that sits 10,000 feet up on the Rendezvous Mountain in the Tetons. It's just about ready to plummet to the ground and in its path is a boy's tent. The boy is asleep, though he slowly begins to wake as the sun comes out. Various mountain animals also pull themselves together and go about their daily routines. A marmot (mountain woodchuck) offers warning cries whenever predators are about. A family of pikas (rabbits without the long ears) gather and dry food for the coming winter. Birds fly and hunt, mammals eat in preparation for hibernation, and elk call to their mates. The boy leaves the destructive area and begins to climb higher when a violent storm hits. He finds safety but the boulder at last works its way free and an avalanche of rocks and boulders destroys everything in its path. We can safely assume by the end that the weasel and marmot that we met earlier in the tale have been killed, but the pika is still there. Finally, a bit of lichen drops onto a gash created by the falling rocks. "The healing began".

You'd think that any book that begins with a boulder just waiting to land on a boy's head would be a thrilling read. You would be wrong. Once George begins talking about the daily interactions between various alpine tundra animals, the story picks up the pace. Until then, however, you have to deal with sentences like, "In Souther California's Sierra Nevada it starts at 10,500 feet. In the Teton Mountains of Wyoming it appears at approximate 9,500 feet, and in the Cascades and Olympic Mountains at 6,500 feet. The alpine tundra on the Presidential Range of New Hampshire is low, between 4,200 and 5,00 feet...", and so it goes. This kind of talk goes on for long periods of time, gently lulling the reader to sleep. My advice to kids that are assigned this book in class is to skip all the stuff that isn't about animals. The wildlife portions are quite lively, and with good reason. Jean Craighead George is kind of the patron saint of the realistic children's animal novel. From "My Side of the Mountain" to "Julie of the Wolves", she knows her stuff, and it shows. Unfortunately, she has a difficult time balancing factual information about her setting with interesting information about its inhabitants. By the time you finally get to the cataclysmic storm, half your fourth-grade readers have given up on the book.

A good edit could've saved this title. Because of the nature of its subject, this book doesn't age. Its pen and ink illustrations (provided by artist Walter Gafffney-Kessell) are wonderfully realistic additions. Unfortunately, no such edit exists and the dull 14 or so pages at the start will turn-off potential kid readers. This can be a great read if you slog through its initial tediousness. Otherwise, its just so much dead wood.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars one day in the alpine tundra, May 7, 2001

By 

rebecca penning (Joplin, MO USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: One Day in the Alpine Tundra (Paperback)

This nonfiction book is presented very well to its readers because the author, Jean George, spent many hours observing the animals and plants in the tundra. As a naturalist and an animal lover, George gives an excellent idea of how life would be in the Alpines. Because of the short chapters, it's easy for the younger readers to follow along with. Also, unfamiliar words are defined within the reading as well. The book describes the effects on wildlife, trees, and plants due to the climate and geological disasters, which occur in the tundra. This makes for a very informative book, which is also filled with excellent reference aids. These include the complete Bibliography of books about animals that were used to create this particular book. This helps establish credibility for the author. Also, a very helpful index is available at the end of the work as well.

The book also contains excellent illustrations. The pictures convey a vivid image of the lifestyle of the seven specific mammals that are fit to inhabit this area of land. The pictures clarify themselves without any needed captions to explain them. The cover of the book is very enticing to children because of the animals and the mountaintop landscape that are displayed on the front. It is a very attractive book that is sure to be enjoyed by its readers, both young and old.

When using this in the classroom, encourage the students to draw their own pictures to help explain what life would be like on the tundra. They can include plants and animals to show the interrelationship of each one upon the other after reading the book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Spend one day in a whole new world, April 14, 2001

By 

Isabel Harding (Atlanta, GA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: One Day in the Alpine Tundra (Paperback)

Naturalist and award-winning author Jean Craighead George offers children a smoothly written account of the wildlife, both big and small, which inhabits the alpine tundra of Wyoming. The talents that won her the Newbery Medal for JULIE OF THE WOLVES and have helped her write nearly one hundred other marvelous environmental stories for young readers swing into action. On a mountaintop in the Teton Mountains, a great rock stands regally above the almost treeless landscape, and it is about to fall. A wide variety of rodents, birds, and mammals go about their daily business, unaware of the avalanche that will soon take place. Water pipits hop like sparrows across the ground; a sleepy marmot begins his time of hibernation; a golden eagle scans his kingdom, searching for prey. And a stranger to the area, a boy named Johnny, wakes up in his tent. This quiet story, which turns exciting when the rock tips, is a fascinating look into a unique environment. The human character in the story never manages to take over, as sometimes happens in some of Ms. George's other books. The accurate, interesting writing is reminiscent of Ms. George's earlier series about specific ecosystems, like the Thirteen Moons series, about the seasonal changes that take place with thirteen animals in thirteen environments. These books are now out-of-print, but one gets the same sense of fascination and new understanding of the animal world through the One Day series (you can find my review of the Thirteen Moons series by searching for the book THE MOON OF THE OWLS). The other books in the ONE DAY series are: ONE DAY IN THE. . .PRAIRIE, DESERT, TROPICAL RAIN FOREST, and WOODS. Jean Craighead George's dramatic words are also strengthened by Walter Gaffney-Kessell's expressive illustrations. Come to a whole new land with this fine, short but thourough investigation into one of nature's greatest landscapes.