LION YELLOW

A cat of a different color, but readers of A Lurk of Leopards will recognize the sun-dappled scenery and sensitively balanced portraits of human beings and lions in a Kenya game park. It's hard to say who is most agreeable here--David Thorne, the gamekeeper's son who fancies himself ""Lion Boy,"" until he meets black-maned Prince, a half tame and too fearless former pet, face to face; the western educated Masai politician who encounters his first lion and decides in favor of the park's continued survival; the venerable ""sultan"" lion Soldani and his hunting ""harem."" Accurate as far as it goes, the lions' behavior lacks the raw power of Schaller's real-life subjects; nor do the benevolent Thornes show any of the tensions one might expect in a family whose lifestyle is being phased out by Africanization. Nevertheless, Lion Boy's animal sightings make this a mildly, but continuously rewarding, sojourn.