ANIMAL BABIES OF EAST AFRICA

Despite a few handsome portraits--of an adult baboon, a natty young zebra, and a skittish leopard cub-- and commentaries, appropriately geared somewhat younger than Cart's recent Safari to Ngorongoro (p. 687, J-237), this album of animal baby pictures is only minimally satisfying. That the photos have been taken in the wild under difficult conditions explains but doesn't excuse their shortcomings which range from graininess to the dullness of an elephant family half-hidden behind some straggly brush. And a two-page introduction, celebrating the ""efforts of explorers and scientists"" in unraveling the mysteries of the ""Dark Continent"" and mentioning native Africans only in passing, seems to us unnecessarily insensitive. On balance, we'd prefer to travel with Cart.