Full Circle: Creation, Migration, and Coming Home

by Elisa Boxer, Vivian Mineker (illustrator)

This lyrical adventure follows the bluefin tuna, puffin, sea turtle, and Atlantic salmon through their life cycle. Each of these special species has a characteristic called natal homing. They're born, leave home to eat and mate, and then return to precisely where they were born to start their own families. This is a scientific look at these animals' habits--but includes a parallel story reflecting humans' own tendency to return home. Science and nature backmatter includes additional information on the included animals as well as an author's note.

Genres: Childrens

40 pages, Hardcover

Published July 1, 2024

Reviews

[Kathy Temean · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a sweet book. I enjoyed how Elisa connected the circle of life and explored the phenomenon of natal homing where animals, like salmons, puffins, bluefin tuna, sea turtles, and humans feel the pull of home.

Kids will love reading about how every spring in Iceland a mother Puffin returns to the cliffs where she was born and uses her beak to carve out a cave deep enough to hold an egg. Then for forty-five days she and her mate take turns keeping it warm and protected from predators. 

Children will read about the female sea turtles that come out of the ocean in the place where they were born to bury around one hundred eggs in the sand, then two months later the hatchlings make their way down the beach and into the ocean. The females return 20 to 30 years later to lay their eggs on the same beach to start the cycle again.

In Mexico in the dead of night when predators are fewer the mother Bluefin tuna lays millions of tiny eggs in the warm waters where she was born. Children will be amazed that only two eggs survive.

During the fall in Maine Momma salmon dig holes in river beds where she was born filling the nest with five thousand tiny eggs and flipping her tail to heap gravel over them. 

What is really cool is every page where the reader sees the creatures being born, hatching, and growing up, they also see a human family having a baby, that baby growing up, getting married, and having a baby to start the human cycle and the urge to return home. Parents and their children will love this book. The illustrations Vivian created are so interesting, colorful, and charming. The text is lyrical and the subject is interesting and thought-provoking.  Both of these things are sure to keep everyone turning each page. And I love the last two pages that share more information and pictures about each of the amazing animals featured and their predators. I know children will gobble up everything in this book. 

[Bethe · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars. Wonderful look at the creation cycles of 4 animals that return home to have their babies, with a human family doing the same thing at the bottom of the pages. Warm, pleasing illustrations. Author’s note, fun facts, and photos of the animals. No list of sources, but a marine science expert is tracked for expertise for the book.

[Crissi Brandhuber · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book! Loved the tie in to the family and how we tend to always come home. Unfortunately, it uses The Gulf of Mexico, and according to Florida Statute, I cannot put this book in my library if it doesn’t refer to the Gulf of America. I will hold onto it until DeSantis leaves Tallahassee. It’s up to the writer and/or the publisher to change this or not.