QUACKO AND THE ELPS

When Quacko, the young bottle-nosed dolphin, had his first sight of men on a boat he thought they were some sort of parasite clinging to a large shell. Then, one ""broke off"" and its call from the water sounded like ""elp, elp."" Quacko thought this was a very interesting specimen, possibly a little brighter than the actopi that he admired, even though this one had only four tentacles. As one of the brightest of the seagoing animals, Quacko had a deep interest in I.Q.'s. (At one point in the story he ranked the creatures he knew for relative brain power. His sense of reality overcame any watery modesty, so he put himself on top.) As one of nature's clowns, Quacko couldn't resist showing off. While swimming with a group of young whales, he put on a burst of speed and leaped over a coral reef to land in a lagoon. He couldn't get out, but he did have the opportunity to observe more ""elps"" at close hand. Quacko is made to do all the things that dolphins have been reported doing. His observations on mankind are really very funny. The book allows youngsters to giggle their way to information about the sea and fish.