RETURN FROM EXTINCTION

Once thought to be extinct, northern elephant seals have returned by the thousands to rest and recuperate, breed and give birth on beaches up and down North America’s Pacific coast.

Prompted by her unforgettable first sight of hundreds of elephant seals resting on a beach near San Simeon, California, and learning that these seals had been reported extinct at the end of the 19th century, journalist and novelist Richards tells this “good-news story” as if she were sharing her excited discoveries with a friend. Her narrative is loosely organized into four sections: a physical and social description; a history of the species; what their lives are like over a year that includes two migrations; and, more generally, threats, research, and where readers might see them themselves. Elephant seals, named for the male’s large and mobile nose, are astonishing creatures. They’re really, really big—a male might weigh up to 5,000 pounds. And, they can be really, really loud, louder than a plane taking off. There are plenty of facts, but some seem arbitrarily selected, appear out of the expected context, or are plain wrong (how a fish uses its tail). A nice mix of photographs, many her own, enliven the pages. Each is labeled by source, and most are captioned.

This first effort at natural-history nonfiction endearingly reflects the author’s enthusiasm.