ON THE MOUNTAIN

Five types of North American animals
pop up over alpine slopes and meadows.

In big, centered pop-ups that really
elevate as each spread opens, a pair of wolf cubs races toward viewers, a
rainbow trout gapes, a bighorn sheep lowers his head ominously, two roly-poly
black bear cubs tumble, and a bald eagle soars. In the backgrounds, which, like
the animal stars, are done in a cut-paper–collage style, triangular trees,
bright wildflowers, and lush green grasses perch decoratively on rocky
hillsides or wave sinuously in the flowing water. Walden adds bland but bouncy
rhymes (“As the sun soars in the sky, / Two bumbling, tumbling bears roll by”) and,
in smaller type, a few bits of natural history about each creature or about
mountains in general: “The highest point of a mountain is the summit or the
peak.” The co-published Across the Savannah features the same approach
and the same sort of large figures (all African, notwithstanding an observation
that savannahs are found on four continents), including a toothily grimacing
hippo, towering giraffes, and a quartet of alert meerkats. Both galleries
conclude with a final, peaceable-kingdom–style gathering.

Pleasant visits to wild habitats for
the Oshkosh set. (Informational novelty. 3-6)