Scaly Babies: Reptiles Growing Up

From School Library Journal Grade 2-6 These ``babies'' may be small, but they're certainly not helpless; reptile young enter the world prepared to fight or flee, as this lucid, well-organized introduction demonstrates. General information on typical nests, kinds of eggs, and physical and behavioral characteristics of the young in each of the four major reptile orders (i.e., snakes, lizards, crocodilians, and turtles) is briefly given. The majority of the text focuses on several representative newborn, including an Asian cobra, a Gila monster, and a Loggerhead turtle. A short section on each describes the rough nest in which the reptile mother laid her eggs. The book ends with a plea for conservation. Sharp color photographs accompany the text on almost every page. (The close-up portrait of two dwarf caiman babies ``grinning'' into the camera is excellent.) Scaly Babies, while well written and accurate, is flawed by the omission of some important data. The families to which the reptile young belong are not mentioned, and only common names of species are given, not scientific ones. Still, this book approaches the subject from a fresh angle; most books on reptiles (i.e., Johnson's Snakes Lerner, 1986 or Zim's Reptiles & Amphibians Golden, 1953) only briefly mention the young. This is a useful and attractive addition to the natural history sections of most school and public libraries. Karey Wehner, San Francisco Public LibraryCopyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.