The Glaciers Are Melting!

PreS-Gr 1—A crew of mountain-dwelling critters are all aflutter about glacial melt. Peter Pika panics when he's hit by a drop of water and goes to seek the wisdom of Mountain Monarch, taking with him Harry Hare, Mandy Marmot, Sally Squirrel, and Tammy Ptarmigan. Along the way, they encounter Wiley Wolverine, who attempts to lure them into his lair. A neat idea for broaching the subject of environmental protection with the younger crowd, the book hints about the consequences of glacial melting for each animal in a light, chatty tone rather than hammering kids over the head with gloom-and-doom facts. The story concludes with Mountain Monarch lamenting the fact that the animals number too few to make a difference, and Peter Pika asks, "Then who?" Turn the page, and the answer to that question awaits readers via several spreads of useful information about glacial melting and environmental protection. The book does suffer a bit from an inconsistent quality in Bersani's illustrations. The detailing of the animals' fur and feathers is respectable, but the creatures themselves are static figures that sometimes appear to have just been dropped into the scenery. That said, the book serves a great purpose in a largely successful way.—Alyson Low, Fayetteville Public Library, AR