Supernavigators

LoveReading4Kids Says

Animal migrations are the subject of many fascinating information books for young people but this adaptation of David Barrie’s award-winning book for adults, explaining the wonders of animal navigation, is much wider in scope than most and goes much further in explaining the science of remarkable journeys.

Over carefully designed and illustrated pages, it follows different creatures and explains how they are able to navigate using sound, sight and smell, as well as more unusual methods – magnetism, electricity, gravity and more. The extraordinary abilities of cataglyphis fortis, a species of desert ant, is an example of how animals can use dead reckoning, landmark navigation and the earth’s magnetic field to find their way home; we learn more lessons from the ways in which loggerhead turtles, spiny lobsters and bar-tailed godwits find their way across the world.

Just as interesting, the book explains the ways and means scientists have discovered and proved these abilities. An opening section uses the example of being lost in a park to set it in the context of young people’s own experiences, the author reminding us throughout that we humans too belong to the natural world. It’s a book that requires and repays concentration, and which is truly eye-opening and informative.

Reviewed by Andrea Reece
Andrea Reece has spent almost her entire working life in children’s books, first as publisher, latterly as consultant, project manager and critic.
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