Condor Magic

B4 Glossy hardcover 1997 32p. 10.25X10.20X0.30 BIRDS POETRY CONDORS POETIC WORKS * THE HUMANE SOCIETY THE U.S. ANIMAL TALES FOSTER ANIMAL PROTECTION AND ENVIROMENTAL PRESERVATION IN YOUNG CHILDREN.

Grade 1-4ABroad impressionistic vistas and a poetic text invite readers to imagine soaring into "a wild, warm pocket of sky" as a "mysterious, magical, wild condor." Romanticized verbal imagery and suggestive, deep-toned paintings sketch the long history of the giant bird including its near extinction in the mid-20th century and the more recent captivity/recovery efforts. There's a certain amount of puffery and some vagueness, too, in the presentation, but homely reality emerges occasionally: "Now this, my friend,/is how you're dressed:/your head is naked/to avoid the mess....You eat sticky innards/and gutsy mush./Your neck feathers bristle/like a toilet brush." A crowded concluding page contains a glossary, a small photograph of a "real California Condor released in Arizona," a small paragraph on recent releases of captive bred condors back into the wild, and a statement about the Humane Society of the United States. There's also a key to Native American symbols that allegedly appear in the art; these are not readily located and seem extraneous to the dreamy, evocative art style or any information in the text. The murky view here is less apt to spark the interest of children than the striking photographs that appear in several documentary books done over the past decade. This well-intentioned appreciation of the bird will work best in classrooms where teachers encourage children to explore subjects through art and writing.AMargaret Bush, Simmons College, Boston
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Inflated poetry offers details about the California condor, a soaring bird who flew the skies 40,000 years ago, picking at the bones and carcasses of woolly mammoths and saber-toothed tigers. Hoopes (The Unbeatable Bread, 1996, etc.) covers the condor's long history, as it flew through the ages to recent near-extinction, due to the taming of the West, DDT, and high- tension wires of modern civilization. Exalted language, peppered with exclamation points, sometimes gets in the way of the information presented: ``You're a curious dude/a ravenous raven,/disgustingly crude,/rudely behaving.'' Semi-impressionistic oil paintings emphasize mood over subject; the magic of the condor's life suggested by the title is lost in the poetic approach. (glossary) (Picture book. 6-10) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.