Swimming with Sea Lions

School Library Journal

Gr 3-5-- This is a personal account of a trip to the Galapagos Islands rather than an introduction to the area's scientific aspects. Written as a day-by-day journal of a boy's vacation with his grandmother, it is accompanied by small, rather dark, full-color photographs arranged in a diary/scrapbook format. As such, this is a browsing item, rather than a resource for reports. McGovern includes not only the enjoyable and thrilling discoveries possible in such a place, but also such miseries as walking through sticky, muddy goo and being bitten by fire ants. The style of writing combines adult terminology and point of view with childlike expressions. On one page, the woods are described as smelling good, ``like spices,'' and the opuntia cactus trees as being ``taller than four people standing on each other's shoulders.'' Yet, on other pages readers find such descriptions as ``ten adorable young sea lions'' or a penguin who ``was so cute.'' Hough's Galapagos (Addison-Wesley, 1975; o.p.) and Selsam's Land of the Giant Tortoise (Four Winds, 1977; o.p.) are not as colorful, but they provide more information.-- Frances E. Millhouser, Fairfax County Public Library, VA