238. Seal Journey by Richard & Jonah Sobol

Seal Journey by Richard & Jonah Sobol. Photographs by Richard Sobol. (Canada) - (US)

Pages: unpaginated (approx. 32)
Ages: 7+
Finished: Oct. 27, 2011
First Published: 1993
Publisher: Cobblehill Books
Genre: children, picturebook, non-fiction, animals, harp seal,
Rating: 3/5

First sentence:

The life cycle of the harp seal is one of the great wonders of nature.

Acquired: Borrowed a copy through Inter-Library Loan.

Reason for Reading: I am reading Richard Sobol's entire backlist with my son and discussing the life of a photographer/photojournalist as a career option while doing so.  This is the final book for us to read.

A short read with lots of illustrations.  The author brought his son with him on this assignment and the story is told through both of their points of view.  The reader is generally shown the complete life of a seal pup from birth until it is abandoned by it's mother.  Then it describes at this point how it will take the cub a couple more years until he is ready to join in the mating ritual and complete the life cycle again.  There is only scant page time spent on the controversial hunting practices and no photographs of this are shown.  They stick to the beauty of the animal.  An entertaining, if brief, account of an animal's way of life
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