North: The Amazing Story of Arctic Migration (review)

To us non-Polar weaklings, the Arctic may seem uniformly inhospitable, but, as Dowson and Benson remind us, it's actually a seasonally variable region that brings a multitude of animals back in the warmer seasons in what they term "the greatest journey on earth." Quietly descriptive prose, arranged in a poetic ragged-right format, describes the seasonal transition as whales leave the warm Mexican waters to head up the Pacific coast; as the arctic terns wing their way from Antarctica; as shoals of herring, newly spawned, head north for food. The text (printed in oceanic aqua on snowy white, which reverses to white against aqua during the wintry season) has an appealing delicacy, with a touch of lyricism ("With bright scales like mirrors, [the herrings] swerve together, fin to fin"). It's the art that provides the main drama here, though: Benson's detailed illustrations in watercolor, pencil, and pen move easily from subtlety to grandeur; while the draftsmanship is softly realistic, the imagination behind them brings the natural world to vivid life. An overhead view shows boaters in a warm Mexican gulf pointing to the looming underwater shape of a gray whale, her blowhole and spine a moving island above the water level; a flock of terns tessellate like an Escher drawing against the striations of ocean below; echoing bird cries are almost audible in a scene where a craggy walrus pair in the foreground are nearly as rocky as the vertiginous crags, clustered with teeming terns, behind them. Color usage is inspired, with the slate blue and charcoal of winter brightening up slowly, spread by spread, as pale buttery light touches the tundra and brings out warmer shades. The length of the book aims it above the usual picture-book age, making it a treat for middle-graders of an ecological bent, animal fans, and youngsters who favor the visual over the textual. A concluding information section gives more information about the Arctic and provides a brief glossary and an index.