Arctic Alphabet: Exploring the North from A to Z

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.

“A is for Aurora Borealis.” “Z is for Zooplankton.” In between,
there are Beluga, Cariboo, Ducks and geese, Eagle, Fox, Glacier,
Hibernation, Inuit, Jaeger, Kittiwake, Lousewort, Mosquito, Narwal, Owl,
Polar bear, Qivuit, Raven, Seals, Tern, Under the ice (lice), Voles and
lemmings, Walrus, Xanthoria, and Yellowcoat.

Wayne Lynch is a world-traveling nature writer and photographer, but he
confesses to have a particular weakness for Canada’s high Arctic. In
this book, he provides both text and illustrations to show what he has
learned from several visits above the tree line. Formatted in an A-B-C
book, the text has a vocabulary aimed at intermediate and even advanced
readers. Lynch explains, for example, why the Arctic Native people
prefer to be called Inuit (which is their own word for The People) as
opposed to Eskimo (which is a foreign word for Eaters of Raw Flesh). He
also investigates old myths such as whether you can actually get lice
from a plant called Lousewort (no) or seriously hurt if you annoy an
adult male Snowy Owl (yes). The photos illustrating the text are shot in
both Arctic seasons (summer and winter).

Arctic Alphabet is both a pleasure to read and a handy reference book.
Highly recommended for students and young adults