THE WORLD OF BABY ANIMALS
by Bryan Hodgson
Beyond the glossy full-color photographs of animals and their babies on every page, this debut has little to recommend it. For each chapter (``Care and Feeding,'' ``Communication,'' ``Play,'' ``Getting From Here to There,'' and ``Environment''), Hodgson provides a dense introduction followed by a dozen photos. The text and captions are smarmy and anthropomorphic: ``Photographed in an exquisite moment, a mother deer and her fawn symbolize the ever- renewed tenderness and tenacity that wild creatures devote to rearing their young.'' An index makes this volume accessible for research, but it's more pretty than useful. (Nonfiction. 12+)