The Longest Journey: An Arctic Tern’s Migration

“She will make it every/ year of her life,/ chasing sun and food/ for thirty years.” Hevron pays tribute to the arctic tern and its incredible 60,000-mile annual migration in this awe-inspiring travelogue. After its wintertime birth on the Greenland tundra, an avian traveler heads south, stopping in the Canary Islands, soaring above northwest Africa, resting outside the Cape of Good Hope, and venturing over the polar Southern Ocean, summering in Antarctica before returning north at a breakneck pace, completing the trip back in just six weeks. Hevron sprinkles sound effects throughout (“Kip-kip-kip!”) and underscores the strenuousness of the tern’s massive journey. The bird narrowly survives a skua attack, “flails against headwinds,” “battles” a storm, and “struggles” to keep pace. Digitally collaged acrylic and pencil images foreground the scale of the journey through a mix of maps and renderings of the terns on high. Back matter includes further information and suggested reading. Ages 5–8. (July)