These poems contradict any view of the Arctic as a desolate place and celebrate its teeming wildlife: they catalogue its native flora and fauna, from the tiny snow flea (that freezes nightly) to the narwhale (with its mysterious horn) and the mighty beluga. Word pictures - 'The snowy owl takes flight, a scrap of fog across the Arctic night' - are matched in the double page illustrations that chart the seasons of the Arctic year. An afterword gives more facts about the subjects of the poems.