Curious About Mammals

Finely detailed, highly realistic watercolor paintings by John Sill show an array of mammals, mostly North American, in their natural habitats. Each identified in italic text, an American badger peers out from a grassland den, spinner dolphins leap from azure waves, a southern flying squirrel perches to munch an eye-spotted moth. Simple statements by Cathryn Sill identify mammalian characteristics, progressing from the universal (“All mammals have hair”) to the particular (“Some mammals swim”). The careful accumulation of facts ends somewhat flatly in a generic assertion (“Mammals.../ are important to our world”), but the small volume offers youngest readers a pleasing introduction to what makes a mammal a mammal. Ages 2–6. [em](Aug.) [/em]