Early Book Review: The Atlas of Migrating Plants and Animals by Matt Sewell, Megan Lee

The Atlas of Migrating Plants and Animals by Matt Sewell and Megan Lee is a children's nonfiction book currently scheduled for release on March 8 2022. This informative collection featuring mammals, birds, reptiles, fish, insects, and plants from all continents and nearly all oceans will teach young nature lovers about migration in its many forms. Grade-school children will discover how creatures navigate the planet when they encounter climate change, sun, chemicals, the Earth’s magnetic field, and the changing seasons in this illustrated reference book. Follow flocks of arctic terns on their annual 24,855-mile journey between the Earth’s poles. Join the monarch butterflies on their famous pilgrimage, upwards of 3,000 miles, from Canada to Mexico. Marvel at wildebeests, humpback whales, salmon, dragonflies, and more, as they travel around the globe and battle the Earth’s toughest conditions to survive.

The Atlas of Migrating Plants and Animals is an interesting and accessible read that covers the migration style of over sixty living creatures. I thought the text was easy to follow, written in a conversational tone with some humor and interesting facts to keeps readers engaged. Each of the creature profiles includes one or most watercolor style illustrations of the subject matter. I think I would have preferred photographs, as the quality of those illustrations seemed to vary through out the book with some being near perfect and others feeling a little childish to me. The maps that are included are well done and help give a scope of some of the distances covered, but I do not think there are enough maps to really call this an atlas. I liked the information shared and think the book had great potential and intent, but fell short of what I was expecting from the title.

The Atlas of Migrating Plants and Animals is a well written and interesting read that could be helpful in the classroom. However, it fell short of being a true atlas for me. 

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