BIG CITY PORT

A little, platitudinous information about ports--combined with dry but detailed illustrations that do at least convey a sense of loading-and-unloading activity. The text is of the sort that says almost nothing in a nondescript way: ""A big city port is a busy place""; ""Tugboats push and pull each big ship through the harbor to the docks""; ""The ocean liner has docked, and the passengers are getting off."" The pictures have no zest either, and as maritime illustrations no particular skill (none of the ships, for one thing, seem to be actually in the water); but Maestro's ability to delineate tiny objects and depict minuscule scenes provides us with effective views of cargo-holds, cargo-handling operations, and docks. OK, then, as a pictorial panorama supplementing Donald Crews' Harbor and complementing, to a degree, Gall Gibbons' Boats.