ANIMALS OF THE VALLEY OF THE AMAZON

Catechetical fiction/nonfiction. The characters exist to ask questions about the animals of the Amazon, and to hear the answers of fictitious native guides. The book is a dead ringer for Alida Malkus' Animals of the High Andes reviewed in the last issue on p. 188-J66. The intrusive characters are never developed and get in the way of the information which they exchange as artlessly and monotonously as in the following example: ""I never saw a turtle egg,"" Spud said regretfully. ""They are not like the hen's eggs,"" the Captain informed him with a smile. ""They don't have a hard shell, for one thing, and for another the whites do not fry well,"" he added triumphantly. ""Do not coagulate,"" Jerry added. ""You'd better stick to hens eggs, Spud."" And so it goes, a cruise up the Amazon carbonated with animal, fish and native encounters. Even when these are supposedly dangerous, they are never too nervous to stop asking and answering questions. The author's note insists that the book is fact and not fiction. While we do not take issue with the accuracy of the information offered, we maintain that the fictional devices scatter it.