Review: One Day in the Alpine Tundra

genre: children's literature

I found this one at a thrift store to try with my nearly seven year old son. He's a big fan of nature-ish non-fiction, so I was hoping it would be right up his alley. I was totally right.

You get exactly what you'd imagine, based on the title - we spend one day on the alpine tundra, with occasional time stamps. We meet all different kinds of animals specific to this area: the pica, the water shrew, the water pipet, the marmot and goshawk. As we go through the day we get a brief rundown on their habitat and lifestyle, what they eat and how they survive during the nine-month long winter. My son and I had great conversations about hibernation and how animals survive if they don't hibernate.

If course, it's not particularly thrilling, although there are certainly some "circle of life" moments. While chock full of information, it does ready like a story. Sometimes I felt the vocabulary was a bit thick, but I think that's because the tundra is such an unfamiliar place. I liked learning about how these animals had adapted such a severe climate. And, my son loved it - he picked another book in the series for our next read. That's success in my book.