Reviews: (by author)

Singer, Marilyn. Tough Beginnings: How Baby Animals Survive. Illus. Anna Vojech. New York: Henry Holt, 2001. $16.95. ISBN 0-8050-6164-9.

Another fine book about nature by Marilyn Singer, this one is greatly enhanced by Czech-born Anna Vojtech's superb paintings. Singer's text is set regularly in a rectangle on the right-side page, over the luxuriously-colored double-truck illustration. Singer's prose is clear and informative, and she has selected an intriguing range of animals for subjects: sea turtles, whales, the Australian mallee fowl, cicadas, and desert frogs among them. Many paintings depict the development of the animal at hand; all illustrations offer much to the eye and the curious mind. Other animals are discussed in paragraphs on the back pages: eels, eagles, sharks, and giraffes among them. An excellent and beautiful book for a young child.

Alida Allison, January 2004

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