Sea Critters. - Review - book review

Marine explorer Sylvia Earle's Sea Critters ($16.95, National Geographic), is intended for readers up to age 12 but is a delight at any age. Nine-tenths of all the earth's creatures live underwater, and Sea Critters covers several of them, from barrel sponges to moray eels and jellyfish.

Laurie Halse Anderson's new Wild at Heart series from Pleasant Company (each book, $4.95), provides chapter books sure to please middle readers. The protagonists are teens who volunteer in an animal clinic, and the plots often center on humane issues. In Fight for Life, for example, volunteer Maggie suspects that the sick puppies flooding the clinic are from a puppy mill, which she tries to find and shut down. And Manatee Blues takes the clinic crew to Florida, where they rescue an injured manatee.

Youngsters who love to explore nature firsthand will enjoy two field guide series produced just for them. The National Audubon Society's First Field Guide series includes photographic guides for fishes, amphibians, birds, insects, mammals, and reptiles, among others ($8.95 each, Scholastic). Peterson's First Guides use illustrations and species descriptions to introduce young naturalists to birds, butterflies, moths, caterpillars and other insects, fishes, seashores, shells, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and even dinosaurs ($5.95 each, Houghton Mifflin).

Giving one of these guides could have its rewards. Who knows? Maybe your young naturalist will invite you on an expedition.

Joni Praded is a contributing editor for Animals.

COPYRIGHT 2000 Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group