Canadian Animals of the Arctic

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

“The maple leaf on Canada’s flag / Is known the whole world through.
/ This tree gives excellent furniture wood, / and delicious syrup too. /
To make this tree our emblem / We really were quite clever. / Now all
Canadians hope we keep / Our maple trees forever.” These next two
books in the Nature Canada series combine quirky poems and pithy prose
to reveal the secrets of nature to young readers.

The Canadian Trees covers the aspen, birch, cedar, elm, fir, hemlock,
maple, oak, pine, spruce, tamarack, tulip, and yew trees, describing
habitat, types of foliage, and major uses by human beings for each
species.

Canadian Animals of the Arctic looks at the caribou, wolverine, muskox,
polar bear, harp seal, dall sheep, narwhal, beluga whale, walrus,
lemming, ermine, and arctic species of fox, hare, ground squirrel, and
wolf. The author strives to find at least one fascinating fact for each
species (e.g., both Inuit and Scandinavians call lemmings sky mice
because there were often so many of them people thought they fell out of
the sky like rain).

As in the earlier volumes, Jan Sovak provides superb realistic
illustrations to support the poems and prose. These books are fine
additions to the first-rate series. Highly recommended.