ARCTIC SUMMER

Another striking photo essay from the team that produced Polar Bear Cubs (1989), this one depicting plants and animals during the short arctic summer. Matthews stresses unusual adaptations to the harsh environment: caterpillars that freeze and thaw for 13 years before becoming butterflies, rapidly maturing plants, and animals (e.g., the lemming) that produce as many as six litters in a single season. Guravich's color photos are outstanding: a boundless field of arctic cotton grass against a blue sky; the pigeon-like ptarmigan in fuzzy white winter plumage and speckled brown summer feathers; an inquisitive ermine poking his head from a melting snowdrift. Splendid pictorial science. (Nonfiction. 8+)