★ "Natural science at its most visually and verbally lyrical." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

​

★ "Immersive illustrations capture the brightness of sunny days at sea and the cool depths of the ocean, and there’s a marvelous sense of movement on every spectacular page."  -Booklist (starred review)

​

★ "With soaring lines washed in luminous colors, Moore (Yoshi and the Ocean) traces a year in the life of the arctic tern—an animal that, back matter suggests, may experience more sunlight than any other on Earth. The migrating birds raise their young during the arctic summer, then “follow the sun south” to spend the antarctic spring feeding, molting, and growing new feathers for their return trip to the Arctic—and polar summer. "

-Publisher's Weekly (starred review)

​​

"In lushly illustrated landscapes of sea, ice, rock, and sky, [Arctic terns] catch fish and fend off ravens, foxes, and polar bears. . . . Moore’s poetic lines, just a few to most pages, include essential scientific details about the terns. . . . Moore’s delicate watercolors are a marvel of animals in motion: soaring, diving, bobbing, reaching, schooling." — Horn Book Magazine

​

"The text is paced well and manages to be both simple and vivid, with evocative imagery that easily balances the drama of such an epic global journey with the scientific details. The art is also deceptively simple, directly matching the text while cueing readers into the larger ecological world and highlighting the birds’ journey as one of many processes that happen in the natural world annually. "  -The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

​

“An arctic tern, no heavier than a handful of sand, hovers above the waves.” Join these incredible, tiny birds, as they journey from the north to south pole and back again. Not the first tern book we’ve ever seen, but quite possibly the best. First and foremost, I’m a literary gal by trade, so when Lindsay Moore writes sentences like, “With bodies home to hollow bones, and wings like sails, they soar on the wind,” I am pretty much just pumping my fist in the air. The book shows the life of terns, where they go, and why. There are exciting moments (how has no animated movie ever made a skua the villain?) and some real reflective points of beauty, both in the text and the art. And, as ever, you gotta love that backmatter. I did find it kind of funny that the polar bear looks akin to the one Moore wrote about in Sea Bear, only here you’re desperately hoping it doesn’t find a meal. Ah, food cycle. You’re complicated."

-Betsy Bird, School Library Journal from 31 Days, 31 Lists: 2025 Science & Nature Books for Kids 

​

2026 NSTA/CBC Outstanding Science Trade Book

​