GIRAFFE ZEBRA

There is plenty to celebrate in these two new titles by the team that gave us Koala and Kangaroo, this time focusing on animals at Six Flags Great Adventure Safari Park in New Jersey. Giraffe provides intriguing facts and endearing close-up color photographs of adult and infant giraffes--browsing treetops for food using their spectacular 18-inch tongues, playfully necking, galloping, chewing cud, getting down for a drink, and giving birth to a 150-pound baby. The text discusses some of the giraffe's special features, including the 25-pound heart which pumps blood up its long neck, blood pressure which is the highest in the animal kingdom, and the patterns of spots which are as unique as fingerprints. Zebra gives equally satisfying information on three species of plains zebras and two species of mountain zebras. The photographs are for the most part in better focus than those in Giraffe. Indexed. Young children will enjoy the color photographs in both titles; older children will also find the text appealing.