PLAYFUL SLIDER
The North American River Otter
by Barbara Juster Esbensen & illustrated by Mary Barrett Brown
Another fine animal portrait from the team that produced Tiger with Wings (1991). In Brown's elegantly detailed art, the lively river otter romps, slides, catches prey, and raises a family against a pristine landscape. Children who have enjoyed otters cavorting at the zoo will delight in seeing these playful Mustelidae (members of the weasel family) in their natural habitat and reading about their behavior, adaptations, and life cycle. The illustrations, often extending across a full spread, are handsome, though occasionally dark colors make it difficult to distinguish figure from ground (except in the snow scenes). Unusually attractive. (Nonfiction. 8-12)