Hevron, Amy. The Longest Journey: An Arctic Tern’s Migration. Neal Porter Books, 2022. Unpaged. $18.99 978-0-8234-4700-8  Grades K-5. 

The migration of any animal is amazing, and the arctic tern’s migration is no exception. Hevron’s picture book follows a fictional tern on its first journey from Greenland to the South Pole. Scientists have tracked terns’ migratory patterns and have found that they fly nearly 60,000 miles annually. This tern is shown on that journey as we learn what she eats, how she dives, what predators lurk, and more as she travels south through Tenerife, Morocco, Liberia, Namibia, the South Atlantic Ocean, the southern Indian Ocean, Crozet Islands to the Weddell Sea in the Antarctic region. We could say that the terns follow the sun, for they leave summer weather in Greenland for summer weather in Antarctica, before returning to Greenland for the next cycle. The book closes with more facts about Arctic Terns, including where to see them during the year. 

THOUGHTS: This is an excellent first look at migration which highlights the difficulties of the journey and the beauty of the tern and its world.

Picture Book          Melissa Scott, Shenango Area SD
598.3 Arctic Tern