ARCTIC ALPHABET

paper 1-55209-334-4 A flawed collection of full-color photographs and half-page descriptions of 26 animals, plants, and phenomena associated with the arctic region. Lynch organizes his material alphabetically, but aims his comments at far older children than the usual ABC-audience. He first provides three different ways of defining “arctic region,” but doesn’t tell readers which one he’s electing to use. He covers, briefly, such topics as the Aurora Borealis; the jaeger, a bird, who steals food by dive-bombing successful hunters; and the lousewort and how it received its name. An extremely questionable inclusion in an alphabet of mostly plants and animals is I for “Inuit,” “smart people who lived where no white person was able to live.” Despite the author’s many careful firsthand observations, which intrigue, answer questions, and raise new areas for investigation, this volume is of limited use.(Picture book/nonfiction. 8-10)