The Vanishing Manatee

School Library Journal

Gr 3-5-- Big ``Idaho potatoes with flippers'' is one description of these friendly, curious, nonaggressive animals, and it's a description that fits. After tracing a brief history of human discovery and contact with the species worldwide, Clark focuses on the Florida manatees, explaining how their interactions with humans threaten their individual lives and the survival of the species. The increasing human population and concomitant habitat destruction and activities in the remaining available areas endanger this slow-moving creature daily. They are maimed and killed by motor boat propellers, crab buoy lines, and discarded fishing lines and lures. Rescue efforts by scientists and government officials are cited, and individual success stories, as well as failures, are told. Well organized, nicely illustrated with color and black-and-white photographs, and with good chapter divisions, this book will be a useful addition to most collections. --Frances E. Millhouser, Reston Regional Lib . , VA