POLAR

Profiles of creatures living on opposite ends of our planet invite readers in more comfortable climes to compare and contrast.

The Arctic “is an ocean surrounded by land,” Carmichael writes, whereas “Antarctica is a land surrounded by ocean,” and though both are cold (if, as she ominously notes, getting warmer five times faster than anywhere else on Earth) and require similar adaptations to live there, each has distinctive and different wildlife. Flanked by tone-setting wordless spreads of forbidding snowscapes and matched to accurately detailed portraits of animals in natural settings, the book highlights differences and similarities between the two biota with looks at 13 exemplary pairs, arranged by month from one March to the next. These range from belugas in the north and male sperm whales in the south to woolly bear caterpillars (north) and flightless midges that are the Antarctic’s largest indigenous land animals, from ground squirrels and black rock cod—both the only true hibernators in their respective habitats—to baby lemmings and adult emperor penguins similarly huddling to conserve warmth. A comment on pollution at the poles and suggestions for young climate activists round off this unusually perceptive and informative visit to our (increasingly less) frozen zones. There are no human figures in view.

First-rate from top to bottom.