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| The Journey: Stories Of Migration | 
 enlarge | Author: Cynthia Rylant
Creator: Lambert Davis
Publisher: The Blue Sky Press
Category: Book
List Price: $16.99
Buy New: $15.49
You Save: $1.50 (9%)
New (5) Used (8) from $11.76
Avg. Customer Rating:  6 reviews
Format: Bargain Price
Media: Hardcover
Reading Level: Ages 4-8
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 48
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 11.5 x 9.2 x 0.6
Dewey Decimal Number: 591.568
Publication Date: February 1, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
| Showing reviews 1-5 of 6 | | NEXT » |
The miracle of migration... without maps November 22, 2008
Here is an informational book for kids that doesn't get bogged down with boring text or impossible vocabulary. Rylant manages to explain the scientific facts in a storybook style that kept me reading. I also enjoyed the big, boldly colored illustrations that didn't try to pack too much in, but simply allowed the reader to become acquainted with the animal and get a sense of their surroundings.
My problem with the book, however, was the lack of maps. It would seem like a no-brainer to have a small map somewhere within each story that would trace the journey of each creature and help the reader visualize their movements more accurately. Or at the very least the endpapers could have contained a large map with the routes of all the creatures outlined in different colors.
Overall this is a good book to get kids interested in the marvels of the animal world, but it is missing one aspect that would have greatly enhanced the "wonder factor" and the educational value... maps!
 A story of wondrous behavior September 6, 2008
24 out of 37 found this review helpful
As a children's librarian, I have discovered fabulous storybooks. However, a greater thrill is finding the fabulous informational book for young readers! "The Journey: Stories of Migration" is an incredible blend of narrative and illustrations to present to the child a celebration of "the perfection of the natural world and the wonder of its many mysteries" (front bookflap).
Awe-inspiring is an apt word to describe the migrations of locusts, baleen (gray) whales, eels, monarch butterflies, caribou, and the incredible terns.
Grasshoppers in Africa become locusts when there is not enough food. They swarm by the billions and eat every scrap of plant life in their migration. They cause death and destruction everywhere they go.
Do you know that baleen whales feed singly or in pairs in the cold waters of the North Pole? Then they seek each other out until large groups gather together to swim 6000 miles to California and Mexico to give birth and hang out in the warm waters until it is time to return to the Arctic again.
Eels born around the seaweed of the Sargasso Sea look like clear leaves, which then float out to the Atlantic Ocean to the East Coast where the females will head into fresh water of American rivers and the males will hang out in the salty waters of the coastal regions. Then they all swim back to the Sargasso Sea to mate, produce, and die. And the life cycle repeats itself.
One thing about monarchs: they lay eggs and feed only on milkweed, making their taste repulsive to birds. A true natural defense! The caribou, like whales, feed in the North singly or in pairs. When it is time to head south for the winter to the forests, caribou start showing up to join forces to keep wolves at bay. Do you know that one herd of caribou can be nearly 200 miles long!
And the incredible terns! Do you know that terns fly from the North Pole to the South Pole, an incredible 25,000 miles with rare stops and almost constant flight for eight months! Then summer at the South Pole and make that awful, arduous return flight for another eight months!
That nature is so mysterious is a given. I cannot help asking why some of these creatures must migrate and some not. Ah, but I did not create the heavens and the earth. But I can be awed over such dedication to a task in face of such odds as these animals.
Cynthia Rylant and Lambert Davis teamed together to write and illustrate this book of science facts to create a wondrous story of six migratory journeys. An awesome book. A must for your library-- home, school, or public.
(Note: I deducted one star because I thought Rylant's writing was a bit simple for grades 3-5. It was geared more toward first, second grades, but labeled 3-5 grades.)
 AWESOME! June 22, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
In typical Rylant style - she has taken non-fiction material and made it really attractive to the 3rd through 5th graders - although it is still appropriate for a "read-to" session for younger kids as well. Illustrations are captivating. You don't even realize it's a science lesson until you're finished!
Beautiful book June 18, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Beautiful pictures, beautiful text. Cynthia Rylant is lyrical in describing nature's organisms. These animal stories emphasize the diversity of nature and some of the curiosities of animal behavior that can really grab the imagination and encourage further questioning.
By the way, the two previous reviews are inaccurate. Rylant does mention monarchs in Mexico and her timetable for the migration doesn't conflict with the presence of monarchs in Iowa in Sept. or in Texas in Oct. The book is accurate on these points.
 Beautiful Illustrations, but... September 22, 2006
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
I agree with Science Teacher on the subject of the migration of the Monarch butterfly.I picked up a coy of this book at my library and intended to buy it for classroom use until I read the chapter about the butterfly. I just spent the last week doing intensive research on the Monarch Butterfly's Migratory habits in order to participate in Journey North: The Symbolic Butterfly Migration program. The research I did indicates that all of the Monarchs east of the Rockies end their migration in Mexico, not Florida, where Ms. Rylant indicates some of the butterflies spend the winter. Also, in October, the Monarchs can still be seen in Dallas, Texas. Ms. Rylant suggests that all Monarchs have reached their overwintering destination by that time. As I write this, the Monarchs east of the Rockies are peaking in states such as Iowa. Ms. Rylant also suggests that all birds avoid eating Monarchs because of the milkweed poison in their bodies. Actually, some birds and rodents have adapted to eating the Monarchs. I have not made an independent study of the other migratory animals in this book, but I think the chapter on the Monarchs deserves a rewrite.
I think this book would be improved with an appendix at the end which includes a map showing the migratory path of each animal species.
Children in the age of the internet are sophisticated with their access to scientific knowledge, and any books written for them should rise to the occasion.
As a teacher, my objectives would be better served printing off pages from the internet, including a few color pictures, and making a booklet with correct information.
The illustrations by Lambert Davis, however, are exquisite, and so I am giving the book 2 stars even though I have not researched the information in the other five chapters.
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