When Hunger Calls

Children's Literature - Beverly Kobrin

The impeccable paintings in this volume, which depicts 12 animals attacking prey, adds an aesthetic to youngsters' views of wildlife rarely equaled. Part of a trilogy that includes And So They Build and Somewhere Today.1996 (orig.

Children's Literature - Judy Katsh

The power and vulnerability of the predator/prey relationship is on full display in this captivating study by Bert Kitchen. Each two-page spread tells the story of how the predator goes about finding, killing, and consuming his/her prey when hunger calls. The illustrations are vivid and the text is brutal; but so is nature. As long as children understand that for one animal to survive, another must die; they'll be able to tolerate and perhaps even see the beauty in this book. This is the concluding book in Kitchen's extraordinary trilogy on animal behavior.

School Library Journal

Gr 1-3-A companion volume to Kitchen's Somewhere Today (1992) and And So They Build (1993, both Candlewick), which explore aspects of animal behavior. Here, each of the 12 eye-catching, full-page illustrations is accompanied by a paragraph describing the featured creature and how it goes about satisfying its hunger. Some depict dramatic, hunting/scavenging techniques, such as those employed by a killer whale and a great black-backed gull. A Galapagos woodpecker finch is shown winkling grubs from dead wood with a cactus spine, an osprey rises from the water with a newly caught fish in its talons, and a monkfish dangles its ``lure'' to entice its prey into gulping distance. While of little use for reports, this meticulously drawn and informative survey nonetheless provides a colorful look at a variety of responses to an elemental urge. Sure to please the curious of mind, the slightly bloodthirsty of heart, and those with short attention spans.-Patricia Manning, Eastchester Public Library, NY