EAGLE

The Philippine eagle is given real substance in this endangered-species treatment, the sixth in a series from Allen and Humphries (Whale, 1993, etc.). Four schoolboys and their teacher are on a field trip into the Philippine jungle to get a firsthand look at the denizens of the forest. Little Miguel can't get a handle on the tangled confusion of it all, the size and wildness of the creatures, the sheer fecundity. It is the eagle that really terrifies Miguel -- not just the bird, but its shadow. His teacher tries to chase the fear away, to no avail. Only happenstance can do that -- in a close encounter that renders the eagle and Miguel, if not close friends, then close acquaintances. Allen knows how to summon an exotic landscape, but she does go on with the clumsily macho, if good-natured, attempts by the teacher to allay Miguel's fear. Humphries's watercolors, by turns dreamy and crackling, bring to life both the steamy forest and the magnificent bird.