RAMU AND CHENNAI: Brothers of the Wild

Fox departs here from the direct observation of his coyote, fox and wolf books to tell the story of India's wild dogs from the viewpoint of Ramu, a boy who would rather study nature than books and whose understanding teacher allows him to spend time observing and reporting on a sort of extended family or, as Ramu calls it, ""dog city"" which includes three females about to give birth. Later Ramu finds one of ""his"" pups in a trap and takes it home to raise, amused when the newcomer, Chennai, teams up with the family's domestic ""pie"" dog and another wild one on hunting expeditions. Too didactic for satisfactory fiction (the story is obviously constructed to convey not only information but also conservationist arguments), Fox's approach does allow other animal lovers like Ramu to get a taste of human life in the jungle along with some revealing close-up views of the dogs.