WHAT ON EARTH IS A HYRAX?

In the What On Earth series of books about obscure animals, a look at the hyrax, with its life cycle, habitat, food, and individual characteristics ripe for the picking for kids' reports- -and comprising a dream come true for librarians and teachers. The hyrax—a small brown mammal that lives in the rocky hills of Saudi Arabia and Africa—is shown in the full-color photographs that dominate the book and illustrate various points made by the text, such as the sharpness of a hyrax's teeth, or its ability to squeeze into rock crevices to escape prey. Ricciuti (Amphibians, 1993, etc.) offers interesting trivia about hyraxes as well, e.g., the name of the country of Spain was derived from the word Ishapan, which means ``land of the hyraxes.'' Large print and simple sentences make the book accessible to a wide audience. Encyclopedias provide, if not the large color pictures, similar facts, but for libraries inundated with requests for books on—if not the hyrax—the booby, meerkat, skink, pangolin, chuckwalla, and many more, this format fits the bill. (further reading, glossary, index) (Nonfiction. 7-10)