Elephant Quest

From School Library Journal Grade 4 Up-Botswana's Moremi Reserve, with its grasslands muddy and lush from flooding rains, is the setting for the Lewins' latest wildlife quest. As in Gorilla Walk (Lothrop, 1999), they provide a day-by-day account of their search in economical text, deft sketches, and fine watercolor views of animals encountered along the way. The search for elephants takes four days of close meetings with a hippo, lions, kudus, wild dogs, impalas, warthogs, Cape buffalo, giraffes, a male leopard, lechwe, wildebeest, and other denizens of the delta. The daily ventures are made in "-a special Hilux truck that can plow through water like a hippo," the only sign of human intrusion in the vast, watery delta. Though the authors and their guide are shown briefly, the emphasis is strictly on the splendid animals encountered each day. The richness of landscape is only broadly suggested in the bright, hazy scenes. Bits of drama unfold as the authors describe the tensions between predators and their prey. The final bold encounter with the elephants is a more satisfying denouement than the brief glimpse of the gorillas in the earlier foray. An introductory map, two informative concluding pages of elephant facts, and an index round out this beautifully rendered introduction to the region's wildlife and ecology that is also a tantalizing adventure story.