This Place Is Wild

Children's Literature - Uma Krishnaswami

To put together the publisher's "Imagine Living Here" series (other titles include This Place Is Cold: Alaska; and This Place is Wet: The Brazilian Rain Forest), Cobb and Lavallee actually travelled to different parts of the world so that their readers might do likewise in the pages of the books. Here the text and cheerful, detailed illustrations take us on an exploratory journey in East Africa. We meet lions, primates, gorillas, and more. We peek into a traditional Masai community. We get a glimpse of a past in which game and the hunting of it dominated European contact with this region of the world.

School Library Journal

Gr 2-4This accessible but flawed introduction to the animals of East Africa also offers a brief view of the Masai people who live in close proximity to these wild creatures. Soft colored illustrations are pleasing to the eye. A scene depicting poachers de-tusking a downed elephant is quite poignant and might lead students to seek out the whys, hows, and evils of poaching. A well-thought-out map shows readers exactly where the action takes place. There is no glossary but new words and concepts such as "pronking" and "ecotourism" are explained in the text and listed in the index. There is cause for some concern, however. Lions are misleadingly referred to as "lazy." Calling the marabou stork "ugly" is subjective. Perhaps most disturbing is the sweeping generalization Cobb uses when claiming "the Europeans killed for sport." All Europeans? There is little place for stereotyping in today's science writing for youngsters. Beyond that, Wild might be helpful when used with Caren Stelson's nicely photographed Safari (Carolrhoda, 1989), which includes further data on the lifestyle of the Masai.Anne Chapman Callaghan, Racine Public Library, WI