Other books have used the theme of collective nouns for animals; this one features a rhyming text--``A leap of leopards jumping/A colony of ants following/A crash of rhinos thumping/A pod of hippos wallowing''--and vividly colored (nearly neon) paintings by Browne (African Animals ABC, p. 1277). The full-page images are vibrant but strangely out of step with the extensive scientific notes: The scale is often jarring (bees and hares on facing pages appear to be the same size), as are the colors (polka dot whales, shocking pink giraffes) and representation (the badgers look like hyenas). There is also a troubling inconsistency in the use of anthropomorphization and fancy: Badgers blather, squirrels snicker, and finches flirt while the rest of the animal kingdom behave pretty much according to the norm. (Picture book. 4-8)
