North American Wildlife

Sandy Campbell is a reference librarian in the Science and Technology Library at the University of Alberta.

This lovely coffee-table book is filled with fine photographs of North
American wildlife, from Florida to the Arctic, and some solid content.
Most of the photos are of very high quality; a few are unusual in
content; many are artful and beautiful; some of the full-page closeups
are stunning. A couple of the pictures look as though they might be
photos of museum dioramas or computer-compiled (however, that may just
be the result of overprocessing).

The volume is unusual in its class because, in addition to the land
mammals, it has a substantial section on amphibians and reptiles and
another section on sea mammals. Fish, birds, and insects are excluded
from its definition of “wildlife.” The volume is also unusual
because the text does not follow the predictable pattern of
species-by-species description. Rather, it provides commentary on the
survival strategies, behaviors, and adaptations that each kind of animal
employs, which makes it much more useful as a research tool for
high-school to lower-undergraduate students.

All public-school, high-school, and academic libraries should have this
book.