CAREY'S FIRST DAY

K-Gr 4—These titles are an odd mix of fiction, fact, and fund-raising. Each one begins with a story about an endangered animal. The tales, compiled from ideas offered by children benefiting from the work of a featured nonprofit organization, tend toward fantasy. Yara the tapir (Bolivia) frees a maned wolf from a trap by using her oversize nose, which other animals had ridiculed. Shuba, a Ganges River dolphin (Bangladesh), escapes from a fishing net after a crocodile rips the cords. Carey is a sea turtle from Nicaragua, while the snow leopard lives in Afghanistan. Although the stories have different illustrators, all tend toward a folk-art style that suits the tone of the tales. Each story is followed by two pages of facts about and photos of the endangered animal and a profile of someone from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) working to ensure its survival. The volume then turns to facts about the country where the student authors live, shows photos of some of them, and gives information about Dot-to-Dot and one of its leaders who is helping to improve the children's lives. Although the publisher's goals may be commendable, the books try to do too much at once. The facts are too minimal to help with reports while the stories are pleasant but unexceptional. Information about the nonprofit groups would more likely interest adults than the elementary students to whom the rest of each volume is aimed. Unless libraries have an exceptionally high demand for resources about endangered species, they can probably skip these books.—Kathy Piehl, Minnesota State University, Mankato