BIOGRAPHY OF A KILLER WHALE

As in Steiner's previous animal books, the biography device lends neither individuality nor vitality to this report on how killer whales hunt other whales, how they locate their prey and each other by sonar, how some are attacked by sharks, some trapped in tuna nets, and some hunted by men, how they help to check the sea lion population, and how a growing offspring is weaned by its mother and eventually paired with a mate of its own. Simon's recent Killer Whales (p. 378, J-98), despite its sometimes garish style, still makes livelier reading and tells very young readers more about the species than Steiner does in this perfunctory life story--which makes Voight's Bobcat (below) look like a rounded portrait.