About the Holiday

National Wildlife Day was established in 2005 by author and pet lifestyle expert Colleen Paige in memory of conservationist Steve Irwin. The day promotes awareness of the importance of conservation of animals, habitats, and the environment worldwide and offers education on the number of endangered and threatened species across the globe. To honor today’s holiday, visit a local zoo, aquarium, or other nature preserve and take some time to learn about what you can do to help protect the environment.

I received a copy of Migration: Incredible Animal Journeys from Bloomsbury Children’s Books for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

Migration: Incredible Animal Journeys

Written by Mike Unwin | Illustrated by Jenni Desmond

In their stunning book, Mike Unwin and Jenni Desmond take readers along as twenty diverse animals complete their annual travels to safer, warmer, or more fertile feeding grounds guided by inborn instincts. With compelling and conversational storytelling, Unwin introduces each creature, divulging fascinating and endearing facts about the adults and babies that undertake these epic trips—the shortest, 60 miles; the longest, a breathtaking 60,000 miles!

Image copyright Jenni Desmond, 2019, text copyright Mike Unwin, 2019. Courtesy of Bloomsbury Books.

Readers will meet a humpback whale and her baby who stick together for more than 15,000 miles—“the longest swim of any animal on Earth”—as they head from the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Australia to the Antarctic and back in search of krill. As the baby eats, it “will start building up the thick layer of blubber that it needs to keep out the cold.” When it is ten years old, this baby will be fully grown and can look forward to many migrations to come.

If you were stuck waiting at a caribou crossing, you’d want a good, long book on hand. More than 100,000 adults and their young swim across icy rivers and trek over grasslands of the frosty Arctic “inland toward the forests [where] the trees will help protect them when winter comes” and delicious moss and lichen await under snowy blankets.

Image copyright Jenni Desmond, 2019, text copyright Mike Unwin, 2019. Courtesy of Bloomsbury Books.

Meanwhile in a warmer part of the world, a passenger cries, “Stop the car quick! There’s a red river flowing right across the road…. But look closer. It’s not water: it’s crabs. Big red ones. There are thousands of them. They pour across the road in an army of pincers, then scuttle down the bank on the other side, heading for the sea.” Where does this awesome sight take place? On Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean northwest of Australia as millions of red crabs move from the forests to the sea, en masse.

One of the most mysterious and intricately sequenced migrations is that of the monarch butterfly. Each year it takes four generations and four stops to lay eggs and breed along the way for these stained-glass-gorgeous insects “that can weigh less than a paperclip” to complete their journey from the northern United States and Canada to Mexico.

Image copyright Jenni Desmond, 2019, text copyright Mike Unwin, 2019. Courtesy of Bloomsbury Books.

And which creature has the stamina for that 60,000-mile voyage? That honor goes to the appropriately named wandering albatross, who “five to ten years ago…left the small rocky island where it was born. Ever since then it has been wandering, covering more than 60,000 miles a year—over a quarter of the distance from the Earth to the Moon. Never once has it touched land, though the birds often roost on the surface of the water.” In one or two years, this solitary traveler will return to land to breed and become a stay-at-home parent until its only child is ready to depart.

Image copyright Jenni Desmond, 2019, text copyright Mike Unwin, 2019. Courtesy of Bloomsbury Books.

Other creatures presented include the emperor penguin, arctic tern, whooping crane, barn swallow, globe skimmer dragonfly, southern African pilchard, ruby-throated hummingbird, bar-headed goose, great white shark, African elephant, pacific salmon, osprey, blue wildebeest, straw-colored fruit bat, and green turtle.

A map of the world—with each animal’s migratory journey outlined—orients children to the geographic locations and distances involved as well as a few more facts on migration and how pollution and habitat destruction affect migratory patterns follows the text.

Image copyright Jenni Desmond, 2019, text copyright Mike Unwin, 2019. Courtesy of Bloomsbury Books.

Mike Unwin’s accessible, descriptive, and sensory snapshots turn this science-based book into an enthralling page-turner. As one astounding true story leads to another, readers will be eager to see which animal comes next and continue learning about this wildlife phenomenon. Well-known for his nature books for children and adults, Unwin captures the spirit of each animal as they take on the formidable challenges of their annual migration and in the process teaches a love and respect for nature.

Accompanying Unwin’s text are Jenni Desmond’s gorgeous mixed-media illustrations, made all the more impressive by the book’s large format. The textured pages dazzle with the movement and grandeur of nature, transporting readers to far-flung parts of the world and showing them the beauty of each animal up close. Icy blues and greens lend images of the Arctic a frosty feel, while vibrant greens set off the brilliant oranges of the monarch butterflies and jeweled feathers of the ruby-throated hummingbird. Wildebeest are menaced by storm clouds and elephants parade along a brown, dusty road. The book concludes with first a dusky and then a moonlit night that welcome bats and turtles to begin their travels.

An excellent choice for home, classroom, homeschool, and public library collections, Migration: Incredible Animal Journeys will be a favorite of both kids and adults for lessons and more casual reading.

Ages 5 – 8 and up

Bloomsbury Children’s Books, 2019 | ISBN 978-1408889916

To learn more about Jenni Desmond, her books, and her art, visit her website.

National Wildlife Day Activity

Wonderful Wildlife Board Game

Fascinating animals are found in every part of the world. Play this fun printable Wonderful Wildlife Board Game to match each animal to the area where it lives.

Supplies

• Printable World Map, one map for each player
• Printable Wildlife Tokens, one set for each player
• Printable 8-sided Die 
• Colored pencils, crayons, or markers (optional)

Directions

1. Print a World Map for each player
2. Print one set of 16 Wildlife Tokens for each player
3. Print two copies of the 8-sided die, fold, and tape together
4. If you would like, color the map and tokens
5. Choose a player to go first
6. Each player rolls both dice and places an animal on their map according to these corresponding sums of the dice below
7. The first player to fill their map is the winner!

• 1 = Flamingo – South America
• 2 = Emperor Penguin – Antarctica (Southern Ocean)
• 3 = Giraffe – Africa
• 4 = Bald Eagle – North America
• 5 = Ibex – Europe
• 6 = Kangaroo – Australia
• 7 = Panda – Asia
• 8 = Orca – Antarctica (Southern Ocean)
• 9 = Toucan – South America
• 10 = Buffalo – North America
• 11 = Koala – Australia
• 12 = Lion – Africa
• 13 = Etruscan Shrew – Europe
• 14 = Manta Ray – Pacific Ocean
• 15 = Sea Turtle – Atlantic Ocean
• 16 = Tiger – Asia

You can find Migration: Incredible Animal Journeys at these booksellers

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Books-a-Million | IndieBound

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