Sun Bird: The Amazing Journey of the Arctic Tern

With soaring lines washed in luminous colors, Moore (Yoshi and the Ocean) traces a year in the life of the arctic tern—an animal that, back matter suggests, may experience more sunlight than any other on Earth. The migrating birds raise their young during the arctic summer, then “follow the sun south” to spend the antarctic spring feeding, molting, and growing new feathers for their return trip to the Arctic—and polar summer. Throughout, careful illustrations set the terns alongside a larger community of wildlife: the tiny fish on which they feed, an arctic fox eyeing new chicks, and a skua who tries to steal fish. Graceful rhythms of flying birds and schooling fish give movement to the pages, aerial close-ups of birds lend a sense of drama, and reiterative text follows global weather patterns (in both the Arctic and Antarctic, “The sun is shining./ It breaks up the ice./ It wakes up the water”). Even accounting for fearful predators and arduous long-distance flights, this work presents the arctic tern—a creature “no heavier/ than a handful of sand”—as a creature that not only survives in its harsh environment, but thrives. More information concludes. Ages 4–8. (Feb.)