Christine Eckstrom

The World's Wild Shores by Christine Eckstrom, Tom Melham, Loren McIntyre, Thomas O'Neill, Jennifer C. Urquhart (National Geographic Society 1990)(508.3146). This is a beautiful National Geographic Society publication; it is an overview of the types of coastlines found throughout the world. The headings include Tropical Coasts, Warm Temperate Coasts, Desert Coasts, Cool Temperate Coasts, and Polar Coasts. There is nothing better than a National Geographic publication! My rating: 7/10, finished 8/22/14.… (more)

The farthest corners of the earth flourish with exotic flora and fauna, but man's increasing encroachment threatens these distant paradises. Beautiful photographs and lively prose highlight tours of four islands and one desert oasis. This book is organized by geographic area, and indexed accordingly. The content focuses on the delicately entwined relationships in the environment- relationships that can be devastated by commercial exploitation of natural resources, but also repaired and rebalanced when humans stop or altar our activity.… (more)

I really enjoyed this national geographic survey of five places that remain wild and somewhat pristine in today's modernized world. The book was written by a freelance writer who was qualified as a national geographic staff writer for 16 years and the photographer is of award winning acclaim. Together they paint a beautiful mental picture of some of these most exotic places. The tone of writing is informative yet poetically visual in its description of the environments and behavior of those living in them. The writing goes into considerable detail about the history, state, and ecology of these areas. Very informative and interesting, the language level is probably at least for high schoolers. The book is sectioned into the five places that are studied. Each part although including photos and other visual aids such as maps in between the text is followed by multiple pages of wildlife photography pertaining to the information and is described by captions. Overall an excellent book that I would enthusiastically use to inform students of the biodiversity of certain extraordinary places and to inspire interest in the worlds wild places.… (more)