THE JOURNEY

In something of a departure for a writer known better for her poetry and fiction, Rylant presents readers with a lovely sequence of musings on migration. Locusts, American silver eels and caribou join monarch butterflies, Arctic terns and gray whales—“so different from each other but so alike in one profound way: Each must move.” Her sense of wonder never far from the fore, the author describes each animal and its astonishing journey, the text characteristically poetic yet eminently readable for those recent graduates from Henry and Mudge: “[T]hese grasshoppers will begin changing. . . . And when they rise up to fly together by the billions, they will be grasshoppers no more. They will be locusts.” Davis’s highly saturated paintings emphasize the majestic, and if they’re a touch too ponderous to be a perfect complement to the light lyricism of the text, they are nevertheless undeniably beautiful. In its breadth, it’s a terrific introduction to the whole concept of migration. As such, however, it’s a pity that there are no references to any further reading for children who want to find out more. (Picture book/nonfiction. 7-10)