Baby Porcupine. Aubrey Lang. Photography by Wayne Lynch. Markham, ON: Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2006. 36 pp., pbk. & cl., $9.95 (pbk.), $16.95 (cl.). ISBN 1-55041-562-X (pbk.), ISBN 1-55041-560-3 (cl.). Subject Heading: Porcupines-Juvenile literature. Kindergarten-grade 3 / Ages 5-8. Review by Ming Wong. **** /4

excerpt:

The porcupine will spend most of her life in trees either sleeping or eating. To become an expert climber, the baby must practice, practice, practice. The bottoms of her feet are bumpy and rough like sandpaper in order to grip slippery tree trunks. She digs her long claws into the bark so that she won't fall and hurt herself.

Baby Porcupine is part of the Nature Babies series produced by the wife and husband team of Audrey Lang and Wayne Lynch. Young readers will enjoy reading Baby Porcupine and discovering the secret life of a baby porcupine, also called a porcupette, from the moment she is born until she learns how to survive in the forest.

     Like the sloth and koala, the porcupette drinks only mother's milk, chews on small branches and the leaves of raspberry bushes, and she learns to survive on its own at a young age. Baby Porcupine educates young readers in discovering how a porcupette climbs a tree, uses the sharp quills of the tail to defend herself from predators, and lives in the forest among other animals such the deer mouse, raccoon, and the saw-whet owl. Acquiring the life skills from the mother, the porcupette learns to grow apart from the mother and someday have a baby of her own.

     Generously illustrated with colour photos, Baby Porcupine contains a table of contents, an index, and a "Did You Know?" component of interesting facts. Baby Porcupine would be a great addition to elementary schools and is appropriate for all public libraries.

Highly Recommended.

A transplanted Canadian, Ming Wong, in addition to being a resource center manager for a nonprofit organization in Washington, D.C., is a mother on a two-year-old.

To comment on this title or this review, send mail to cm@umanitoba.ca.

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Published by The Manitoba Library Association ISSN 1201-9364

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