SALMON RUN

“On a crisp autumn day, a Pacific salmon is born.”

Chen’s straightforward, chronological account of the life cycle and migration of a coho salmon begins with an egg in the Duwamish River in Washington state. The egg’s development unfolds across the course of the first half of the book (each page marks the passing of time) as the embryo becomes an alevin (a newly spawned fish, with the egg’s yolk still attached), a fry, and, by day 560, a full-grown fish with “a deep instinct to travel west” to the Pacific Ocean. These stages of life are clearly illustrated in a lush palette of blue and green washes, with splashes of salmon orange. As the salmon gets closer to the ocean, Chen carefully describes how her body adapts for the journey, including developing “a silvery sparkle” on her scales to camouflage her from ocean predators. The salmon will spend up to several years in the ocean until, “guided by an internal compass,” she feels the urge to return home to spawn, a journey depicted by lovely swirling currents framed by underwater flora. The soothing narration, reminiscent of a voiceover in a nature documentary, notes that this cycle will repeat with each new salmon egg. The backmatter includes further information about coho salmon but disappointingly makes no mention of the challenges salmon face, such as habitat loss, overfishing, climate change, and pollution.

A gentle, lucidly told nature story.