The Tiger Cubs and the Chimp

October 15, 2013
A chimpanzee cuddles two baby tigers and watches over them as they grow. Mitra and Shiva are twin brother white tigers. When they were only 3 days old, a big storm separated them from their mother. China, an animal worker at The Institute for Greatly Endangered and Rare Species began taking care of them. She had a special assistant: Anjana the chimp, who also grew up at the animal preserve. After watching China carefully, Anjana steps in and learns how to feed the cubs bottles of warm milk. Anjana also plays with Mitra and Shiva, giving them affection and comfort. When they are scared, she puts her arms around them and says, "Boop, boop, boop"--which apparently means, "I am here with you. You are okay." Following the same clean photo-album layout as Suryia & Roscoe (2011) (Suryia makes an appearance with Mitra and Shiva too), with simple sentence structure, this is engaging nonfiction for the youngest set. An author's note explains how the animal-preserve setting fostered this relationship. Since she feels so safe and secure, Anjana is able to overcome her natural fear of predatory animals. Unusual-friendship tales are not uncommon, but two unexpected, yet endearing, animals hugging will never fail to charm. (Informational picture book. 4-8)

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November 15, 2013
Preschool-G Following in the paw prints of Suryia & Roscoe: The True Story of an Unlikely Friendship (2011), this photo-essay tracks two baby white tigers in a South Carolina rescue center and a chimp, Anjana, who learns how to tend to them by aping (so to speak) their human caregiver. The pictures follow the tigers, Mitra and Shiva, from cubs to adults as they feed from bottles, play, swim, and tamely pose with their keepers and other animals. Though the narrative tends toward preciosity Chuff! Chuff! Mitra and Shiva are saying hello to you. Can you say hello to them? and Anjana plainly enjoys mugging for the camera, both she and the tigers (and Suryia the orangutan, who puts in a cameo) are thoroughly photogenic. Another triumph of interspecies TLC.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)