THE ELDERBERRY TREE

(YA) Another voice crying out in favor of our vanishing wilderness is heard in this book of descriptive nature-writing, two sections of which have appeared in the Reader's Digest. Mr. Petite's habitat is a ranch in the mountains near Seattle, where he has lived and worked for over twenty years. He writes of creatures which have come to live with him. A solitary man, he describes animals and woods personally and pecifically, while maintaining a certain cool mystery about his own state and attitude oward life. Some incidents (like the coyote pup he kept indoors for months although wrecked the cabin) and human relations are puzzling. Still, in its warm attention natural phenomena, the book reveals the rewards, pleasures and encounters of a olo existence oriented to the outdoor world, displaying an art and outlook that are ecoming rare. Mr. Petite is the author of Mister B.