WHICH IS WHICH?

The book is designed like a guessing game and will undoubtedly be used that way in the early childhood grades. Indirectly, it teaches the close observation of the minor physical differences in nature that are of major importance to concepts of the classification of the animal kingdom. The method used is very simple and direct. For instance, one page shows an African and an Asian elephant, both unlabeled. The facing page carries a brief paragraph made up of short sentences describing the shared characteristics of the elephant family. Two lists point out the distinctive characteristics of each type. The reader is asked to look at the differences and decide the title question. Among the easy to confuse birds, insects, reptiles and mammals covered here are: butterflies and moths, apes and monkeys, toads and frogs, crows and ravens, etc. Gail Haley's illustrations are not precise animal art, but do allow for the identifications described by the text. It looks like a book that will be easy and fun to use, with a lot of odd facts and -- an answer page for the selfdoubting guesser.