Thundering Herds

As in Boy of the Painted Cave and Hunt for the Lost Cat , Denzel once again characterizes the inner lives of animals brilliantly, without humanizing them. Rhythmic chapters evoke the setting, an ancient prairie that is home to successive prehistoric herds, one moving on as the next stakes its claims. The creatures enact instinctive rituals of hunting, fighting for dominance and acceptance, and dying with only the wild sounds of their grunting and howling to herald the event. Huka, the mammoth calf, Metan, the giant prairie lion cub, and Equus the young horse learn from their elders to respect the unalterable law of the wild, until the arrival of a herd unfamiliar to the plain--the bad-smelling, unpredictable and ultimately dangerous humans. Described in his viscerally descriptive and poetically frank style, Denzel's realm of the beasts, though merciless and bloody, seems unimpeachably fair and right. Engrossing. Illustrations not seen by PW. Ages 10-up. (Oct.)