NORTHWEST ANIMAL BABIES

Fuzzy raccoons peek, feathery burrowing owls yawn, a bison calf peers, all in this photographic take on the animal young of the Pacific Northwest. The collaborators behind O Is for Orca present nature at its most fascinating—the startling habits and behaviors of animal babies in the wild. Each up-close portrait of kits, kids, chicks, or fledglings gives the illusion of looking through binoculars or a telephoto lens as readers meet cougar cubs, golden eagle eaglets or harbor seal pups face-to-face. The narrow geographic perimeters of the Northwest do not limit the subject, with opossum kits alongside orca calves, porcupine kits next to trumpeter swan cygnets. Bite-sized facts about each baby’s beginnings in the world accompany the full-color photos. Almost every carefully worded passage includes a particularly memorable pearl—opossums are no bigger than honeybees at birth, Canada geese goslings create “make-believe nests for themselves,” sea otter pups are well-groomed because a dirty coat won’t float—putting a new skin on an old topic. (Picture book/nonfiction. 3-8)