Salmon Run: An Epic Journey to the Ocean and Back
by Annie Chen; illus. by the author
Primary    Red Comet    40 pp.
11/25    9781636551654    $19.99

“On a crisp autumn day, a Pacific salmon is born.” From an embryo inside an egg to the just-hatched alevin stage to a fry, the salmon’s early life is fraught with danger at every turn. It remains so as she swims down the river to Puget Sound and into the open ocean, where she will spend most of her adult life. After a couple of years, she heeds the instinctive urge to return to her birthplace, so back she swims—upstream—against the treacherous currents until she reaches the place and deposits her eggs (the fertilization process goes unmentioned) in a nest of protective rocks. The text straightforwardly communicates the life cycle of the salmon, while the watercolor-esque illustrations, dominated by blues, greens, and reds, are both beautiful and informative. Maps and time-lapse images are seamlessly incorporated into the art, while the upper-left corner of each double-page spread indicates how many days have passed in the life cycle. Chen’s debut children’s book is sure to inspire a sense of wonder and awe in respect to the natural world in general and coho salmon in particular. Back matter includes information about the fish, their life cycle, and the author’s formative inspiration and creative process.

From the November/December 2025 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.