The authors of Owen & Mzee
and Knut
offer a moving though less compelling chronicle of another creature in need: a bottlenose dolphin that became tangled in a crab trap off the Florida coast. After Winter was rescued and taken to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, her injured tail fell off and she learned to swim by propelling her body with a side-to-side motion. Concerned that this improvised movement would damage her backbone, her caregivers welcomed a prosthesis-creator's offer to fashion a device that mimics the motion of a dolphin tail, enabling Winter to swim normally. The chatty text, sophisticated for kids on the younger end of the age range, is accompanied by photos of varying quality. Low-res initial shots of Winter's ordeal are pixellated (“the mere fact that they were recorded at all gives us a valuable insight into the drama of this extraordinary event” reads a note); the great majority of images, however, are bright, focused and well framed. Readers will be most drawn to Winter's resilience and the dedication and ingenuity of those helping her. Ages 4–8. (Oct.)
