Lion Cubs at Home

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Spinning off its One Small Square books to address the needs of younger readers, Scientific American Books for Young Readers announces the One Very Small Square series. First titles Lion Cubs at Home and Busy Beaver Pond, both by Donald Silver, illustrated by Patricia Wynne, gain pop-ups and pull-tabs while retaining the original series' clean illustration style and attention to detail (W.H. Freeman, $8.95 each, 12p, ages 3-6 ISBN 0-7167-6609-4; -6608-6 Sept.).

Children's Literature - Victoria Crenson

Although this pop-up addition to the popular "One Small Square" series features a pride of lions on the African savanna, it also includes many other animals-leaping gazelles, hyenas whose eyes shine in the moonlight, dwarf mongooses, and even a tiny scarab beetle that finds its way onto every page in a game of hide and seek. The pop-ups are varied with plenty of flaps, slides and pull-tabs on each spread to keep little ones busy looking under leaves and grasses for new creatures. Silver does not sidestep the fact that lions are hunters and must kill for food. By pouncing in play and watching the hunting techniques of their mothers, the cubs learn what they must do to survive.