THREE DROPS OF WATER

Kalina follows three drops of melted ice from a mountain top through widening brook, stream and river to the sea, with pauses along the way to observe how insecticide, town and factory wastes, bulldozed soil, and other forms of pollution adversely affect the plant and animal life otherwise well adapted to its underwater environment. Once past the town Kalina's ""sick river"" begins a process of restoration that is completed in the seacoast marshes, and our only criticism is that Kalina never indicates that this does not invariably make everything okay. As a whole this is another of the author's elementary ecology lessons marked by implicit concern and unimposing grace.