cover image The Leopard Son: A True Story

The Leopard Son: A True Story

Discovery Channel, Ball, Jacqueline A. Ball. McGraw-Hill Companies, $14.95 (29pp) ISBN 978-0-07-016061-3

Based on Hugo van Lawick's film for the Discovery Channel, this book follows the life of a leopard from fuzzy cub to grown cat in an series of deftly linked vignettes. In ""The Tree,"" a two-month-old leopard cub observes the strange, wide world of East Africa's Serengeti plain from the branches of a spreading acacia tree; in ""The Danger,"" a lion menacingly stalks below; and in ""The Lesson"" the cub tumbles down the tree with a ""Bump!"" so the mother leopard can teach him to hunt, hide and sniff danger. The leopard's dependency extends through the dry season, but when the rains finally return--""Giraffes glide through the damp dust, heads swaying in the sudden shower. The world is washed clean""--the mother does not. The leopard strikes out on his own: ""With a swish of his tail, he disappears into the tall grass."" While readers are unlikely to forget that the book is inspired by a television nature special, all aspects of the book support the remarkable photography. Well-honed text unifies a collage of wildlife and landscape photographs--juxtaposed, inset, cut into shapes--and the inventive format is further enlivened by frolicsome pawprints and bouncy, hand-lettered titles. A spirited coming-of-age tale for animal enthusiasts. Ages 5-up. (Oct.)