MOOSE FOR KIDS: Moose Are Like That

A wildlife biologist and naturalist describes the habitat and curious habits of the million moose currently living in a broad band from Newfoundland to Alaska. Fair neatly incorporates a great deal of information, including the standard life-cycle and eating habits, into amusingly forthright, informal descriptions of behavior (moose don't eat grass--their legs are too long; but they may straddle a sapling, bending it down to eat the top, so that it seems ""as though the moose had to be twelve feet tall to reach UP there""). Using the second person gives the text an engaging immediacy: Fair tells readers how to look for moose in the wild (but ""Watch from a distance...Don't mess with a moose""), and describes several ways to recognize their presence (""In winter...[moose sign] pellets are really just packed sawdust, and they don't smell like anything you couldn't bring home""). Francis's color photos, on almost every spread, are grand--dramatic night silhouettes, close-ups that are almost character studies, action shots, evocative wilderness settings. Sandy Stevens also provides lighthearted color pencil drawings. Like Jim Arnosky, Fair is an excellent observer whose enthusiasm is wonderfully contagious. He manages the feat of conveying his information with humor, but without sounding silly. Fascinating and fun.