From School Library Journal
Grade 4-7–This is an adaptation of an adult title by the same name (Mountaineers, 2005). Heuer recounts in short chapters of text and handsome color photographs a venture with his wife to follow on foot a herd of female caribou on their summer trek to their Arctic birthing grounds. He provides some impressive views of the terrain and the enormous numbers of traveling caribou, yet his account is a sketchy overview interspersed with bits of intriguing detail. In our exhausted and hungry state we began having visions. The line between being caribou and being human shifted. He claims as rationale for the expedition a desire to demonstrate the need for protecting the remote site from intended oil drilling, which will threaten the caribou life cycle. He makes a small start on the case here, though readers may be left wanting to know more about both the caribou and the human experience of living with them for several months. Jim Brandenburg's photographic account of following an enemy of the caribou through this region in
To the Top of the World: Adventures with Arctic Wolves (Walker, 1993) offers more detail and plentiful close-up views of the animals. The two books would make a terrific pair for booktalking, and Heuer's interesting subject matter also connects to several possible curriculum topics.–
Margaret Bush, Simmons College, Boston Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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edition.
*Starred Review* Far to the north, in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the exact spot where some in the U.S. would like to drill for oil, lie the calving grounds of more than 100,000 Grant's caribou. Wildlife biologist Heuer and his wife Leanne spent five months traveling on foot with the herd as it made its way out of the mountains and across the tundra to the shores of the Arctic Ocean, where the babies are born. As soon as the calves are old enough to travel, the migration continues, back into the mountains, where the animals winter. Numerous full-color photographs highlight both caribou behavior and the human toll this arduous journey took on the authors. The writing is incredibly vivid as Heuer describes encounters with wolves and the hallucinations he suffered toward the end of the journey when the caribou marched nearly nonstop. More mundane details--like the fact that husband and wife smelled after six weeks with no showers--add a realistic humanity. Appended with a list of books, Web sites, and suggestions for contacting politicians, this is fascinating nonfiction that will be welcomed by report writers, animal lovers, and outdoor enthusiasts.
Kay WeismanCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
--This text refers to an alternate
Hardcover
edition.
