Groundhog Willie's Shadow

School Library Journal

Gr 3-5-A book about groundhogs and their habitats as well as stories about them, including one about Kawgeentuck, a groundhog who saved a Mohawk Indian's life, and Wiarton Willie, a Canadian weather-forecasting groundhog. The pages are divided in half and present both the fictional and informative accounts in different fonts. This is an extremely confusing format for young readers. The parallel accounts are neither interesting nor entertaining. There is a wide mixture of drawings, diagrams, photos, and a cartoon, resulting in additional inconsistencies. Sometimes it's difficult to distinguish the text from the captions. Lorna Balian's A Garden for a Groundhog (Abingdon, 1985) and Steven Kroll's It's Groundhog Day! (Scholastic, 1991) are much better choices for learning about the animals and Groundhog Day.-Sarah O'Neal, Salt Lake County Library System, UT Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.