cover image Journey to the Ice Age: Mammoths and Other Animals of the Wild

Journey to the Ice Age: Mammoths and Other Animals of the Wild

Rien Poortvliet. ABRAMS, $39.95 (224pp) ISBN 978-0-8109-3648-5

In a wistful hymn to nature, popular Dutch artist and illustrator Poortvliet (Gnomes) first details the wildlife of modern Holland, including foxes, deer, rabbits, wild boars and pheasants, then portrays disappearing or extinct species in the Netherlands, such as seals, storks, bison, lynxes and black grouse. Spiraling back in time, he illustrates techniques of archery and hunting, re-creates a massive wolf hunt in 1593, conjures ancient villages with burial mounds built some 6000 years ago, and joins a party of reindeer hunters around 7000 B.C. Then we are back in the last Ice Age some 15,000 years ago, when mammoths roamed the tundra in what is now Holland, and wild horses, woolly rhinoceroses, giant deer and cave lions were abundant. Combining robust realism, colorful detail and a neatly handwritten text, this attractive book will inspire reverence for nature. Natural Science Book Club alternate. (Dec.)