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IF YOU WANT TO SEE A CARIBOU by Phyllis Root

IF YOU WANT TO SEE A CARIBOU

by Phyllis Root & illustrated by Jim Meyer

Pub Date: April 22nd, 2004
ISBN: 0-618-39314-5
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin

Root changes pace from her rousing Big Momma Makes the World (2003) with this subdued, reflective invitation to visit one of the islands in Lake Superior where the now-endangered woodland caribou can be spotted. Meyers captures her tone with woodcuts that resemble silkscreen prints in colors and textures, depicting two small human visitors pulling up to shore in a rubber raft, walking through patches of open forest and meadow, then sitting quietly near a beach until a caribou cow and calf drift into view. Despite a somewhat inscrutable closer (“. . . you have seen a caribou. And a caribou knows your name”), this low-key communion with nature will draw in sensitive readers, and gets Meyer off to a promising start as an illustrator. (afterword) (Picture book. 6-8)