North America
North America
Baffin Island in northeastern Canada is the world’s fifth-largest island. There is sunshine all day long in midsummer, but the sun does not rise at all from November until the end of January.
The island is bitterly cold and the temperature stays mostly below freezing. Inland, the treeless tundra landscape is too harsh for people to live there, but it’s home to hundreds of reindeer, mouselike lemmings, Arctic hares, and Arctic foxes. Seabirds nest off coastal cliffs, while polar bears and walruses hunt and rest on the ocean floor below.
Penned by award-winning natural history author Tim Harris, the “Wildlife Worlds” series takes readers on a fascinating journey to all of the world’s continents where they will learn about the landforms, flora and fauna from various regions of each continent. Harris knows of what he speaks. After studying Norwegian glaciers at university, he became interested in the natural world. Among other places, his travels took him to the Namib Desert, the slopes of Popocatépetl (an active stratovolcano in Mexico), the Sumatran rainforest, and the frozen Sea of Okhotsk. The books have eye-catching covers and an attractive layout. Despite the information’s being a general overview of specific areas within each continent, Harris captures the reader’s attention with his engaging text and wonderful full-colour photographs, a winning combination that is bound to pique the reader’s interest and desire to learn more. All of the books begin with a general introduction to the featured continent, along with a map showing the various regions. The remaining chapters focus on each of 12 specific areas, with a double-page spread devoted to each one. A table of contents, a glossary, an index, and a list of books and websites for further study are included.
North America highlights the landforms, plants and animals of the Everglades, the Mojave Desert, the Grand Canyon, and Hawaii, to name a few. In this title, readers can learn about the tundra, wetlands and prairies. They will be amazed at the size of the trees in the redwood forests of northern California’s coast and the geysers, hot springs and mud pools of Yellowstone National Park. Additional areas covered are the Mississippi River, Monument Valley, the Blue Ridge and Rocky Mountains, and Baffin Island. The only country not represented is Mexico.
Educational, engaging and thoroughly enjoyable, the “Wildlife Worlds” series offers readers a glimpse into the diverse natural world of the Earth’s continents and an opportunity to marvel at Mother Nature’s handiwork.
Gail Hamilton is a former teacher-librarian in Winnipeg, Manitoba.