FRIENDSHIP ACROSS ARCTIC WATERS

If a choice must be made, this account of American children getting acquainted with their Soviet counterparts is preferable to Dolphin's Georgia to Georgia (p. 470/C-90). Murphy's narrative explaining that the Cub Scouts' trip was one of several recent citizen visits 200 miles across the Bering Strait (including long-delayed reunions among Eskimo relatives) is more straightforward and coherent; the excellent color photos of kids having a good time together seem more genuinely spontaneous here; even the simple map is more satisfactory, including exactly what the reader will want to know. The picture of the port city of Provideniya and the Scouts' reception there is nicely balanced: security officials may be grim-faced, but the hosts all have welcoming smiles; TV programs may remind the adults of the 50's but are a salutary reminder that cartoons used to be less violent in US, too; concrete buildings look forbidding, but the apartments within are cozy and attractive. A fine report on a happy, mind-expanding exchange. (Nonfiction. 7-12)