J. Rooker, Manatee

A manatee of the southwest Florida coast is injured, then rescued, rehabilitated, and returned to the wild. Based on a true story.

Kindergarten-Grade 3?Stunningly illustrated in tropical shades, this book describes some shattering events in the otherwise placid life of a Florida manatee. After losing its mother in a storm, the calf is slashed on the back by a motorboat propeller and surely would have died without human intervention and rescue. Bright, double-page spreads draw viewers into the animal's watery habitat, but the text is too wordy and explicative, and about one quarter of the way into the story the tense shifts from past to present. The story line loses momentum because of too many interruptions to explain how the manatee feels, first about his carefree early life, then later when his "pain is almost unbearable," and "Yes, this is death, he is certain." Information about manatees is introduced throughout, but this blending of fact and fiction weakens both aspects of the tale, and much of the drama is lost. At one point, in order to explain the rescue operations, the point of view shifts to a human explanation of events in a further dilution of storytelling. Kathy and Tara Darling's Manatee (Lothrop, 1991) and Margaret Goff Clark's The Vanishing Manatee (Cobblehill, 1990) both do a better job of presenting the perils facing these endangered marine mammals.?Frances E. Millhouser, Chantilly Regional Library, VA
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.