From School Library Journal
Gr 4-8--The outstanding feature of these titles is the beautiful, sensitive, and informative photography. Unfortunately, the texts lack the quality, clarity, and focus exhibited in the stunning closeup views of these popular arctic sea mammals. Kotik's "diary" begins on February 24th and ends April 5th with a two-page summary covering mid-April to the beginning of July. Nanook and Naoya follows the life of polar cubs from their birth in December to their abandonment and making it on their own two years later. The time-gap between early July of the first year and late July of the second year is confusing. The scriptlike writing, filled with flowery language and a multitude of words to describe the action detracts from, rather than enhances, the visuals and much of the information gets lost in the jumble of metaphors, similes, and personification. Other distracters include the use of metric measurements without conversions, odd sentence structures, the seemingly random use of italics, a mixture of present- and past-tense verb forms, and an overdose of exclamation points and question marks. Although many interesting facts are woven into the story lines, one first must wade through the adjectives, adverbs, and figures of speech to construct meaning and synthesize the information.
Roz Goodman, Bering Strait School District Media Center, Unalakleet, AK
Copyright 1998 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
