At the Zoo

School Library Journal

PreS-Gr 1Animal Hospital is the better of these two titles in terms of organization and coverage. It is a matter-of-fact, rather dry description of a typical clinic, its functions and its personnel. The full-page, full-color photographs are not particularly well reproduced or especially informative. On the facing page, a few sentences of simple explanatory text are supplemented by a full-color, silly cartoon with a balloon of additional information. The glossary contains only three words. Zoo has equally mediocre photographs and tries to cover too much in too little space, drawing in material about grassland, rain forest, woodland forest, and polar regions without making it clear that zoos cannot truly replicate these habitats. The glossary inaccurately states that all rain forests are hot and synonymous with jungles.Patricia Pearl Dole, formerly at First Presbyterian School, Martinsville, VA