OUR ISLANDS

In no geographical order, Zommer presents 13 islands or island groups from our planet’s estimated 600,000. For each, the author includes blocks of chatty commentary scattered around a stylized aerial view decorated with outsize flora, fauna, and volcanos or other geophysical highlights. Signs of human presence in these diverse locales are largely confined to glimpses of tiny, generic figures in the pictures, along with general references to native spices or residents, plus a spread of briefly retold island origin legends and a view of Henderson Island beaches in the South Pacific littered with plastic waste. Still, disorienting though it is to be whipped at a page turn from hot, arid Socotra (off the coast of Yemen) with its rare trees and 96 types of tree-climbing snails to Antarctica’s Ross Island, where “your snot would freeze if you sneezed,” and then back to the Big Island of Hawai’i, the author’s lively observations and memorable snippets of fact invite readers to linger at each of the stops long enough to marvel at their distinctive, often unique plants and animals.