THE SIERRA CLUB BOOK OF SMALL MAMMALS
by Linsay Knight
Like The Sierra Club Book of Great Mammals (1992), this falls somewhere between a reference and a browsing book, with dozens of meticulous color drawings and appealing photos of animals, informally grouped by family or characteristics—small marsupials, canids, rodents, etc.—and accompanied with brief technical descriptions of the classification of each, and short paragraphs on some representative species. Some of the information is so telegraphic that logical connections are omitted (``this common shrew is so small it must feed continuously''), and not all uncommon words are defined in the glossary (``prehensile''); there are few clues to scale in the illustrations, and size information in the text is inconsistent. Still, a handsome glimpse of many of our smaller cousins. Glossary; ``How Scientists Group Mammals''; index. (Nonfiction. 9+)