Swan Flyway: The Tundra Swan (The Smithsonian Wild Heritage Collection) - Hardcover

Limpert, Dana

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0924483954 ISBN 13: 9780924483950

Publisher: Soundprints, 1993

Synopsis

A family of tundra swans migrate from Chesapeake Bay to their Canadian summer home, where they raise five new cygnets before once again making the difficult journey back to their winter home by Thanksgiving Day

About this title

Reviews

Kindergarten-Grade 2-This is dramatized natural history with a limited text and undistinguished illustrations. A pair of swans migrate to the Canadian tundra, encounter a storm, build a nest, chase off an intruder, raise cygnets, and fly back to the Chesapeake Bay. The narrative vacillates between storytelling and factual presentation. As a story it is bland; as introductory nonfiction it is better, but not straightforward enough to be a resource. Colored-pencil drawings are naturalistic in style and quite pretty, but lack vigor and distinction. This rather pedestrian series entry could be used to pad collections that want everything and anything on endangered species.
Valerie Lennox, Jacksonville Public Library, FL
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Licensed by the Smithsonian Institution, this volume in the Smithsonian Wild Heritage Collection gracefully documents the seasonal patterns of tundra swans (also known as whistling swans). Limpert's sturdy text reports on two swans and their eight-month-old cygnets. Stirred by a gentle March breeze, the family migrates from "a bay called Chesapeake" to the Canadian tundra; although the swans stop often, they continually outrun the edge of summer as it spreads north. Safely arriving, the swans separate: the cygnets are old enough to care for themselves, and their parents build and guard a new nest. The cycle begins again: the swans feed their young, mature, molt and, at last, migrate back to the Chesapeake in autumn. Floating in soft, powdery textures, Bosson's restful, colored-pencil illustrations tenderize the story without romanticizing it. Limpert's endnote furnishes statistics about the tundra swan population and information about their characteristic behaviors. An audiocassette and stuffed toy are also available from the publisher. Ages 4-8.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Soundprints
• Publication date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0924483954
• ISBN 13: 9780924483950
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Bosson Jo-Ellen
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 31