Animal Helpers

January 15, 2013
What happens to a wild animal too badly injured or too acclimated to humans to be returned to the wild? Using examples from six animal-rescue organizations across the country, Curtis describes what wild-animal sanctuaries do. Short informational paragraphs are set on full-bleed, double-page photographs of animals being cared for. The account begins with a series of portraits of shelter animals: several tigers, a binturong, a declawed Canadian lynx, a pair of blind bobcats and a bear. The author goes on to describe animal medical and dental treatments, training and enrichment. More than half the photographs relate to captive tigers, but other animals, even an overgrown farm pig, appear. A final page shows volunteers moving an animal into a shelter. There is no real narrative arc, nor any direct suggestion that readers could be involved in this work. Only in the four pages of backmatter--a quiz, a map, further information and thumbnail behind-the-scenes pictures--are readers invited to connect, through questions about where they live and what they like to do. Part of an ongoing series about animal care that began with Wildlife Rehabilitators (2012), this title fills a niche but doesn't excite. (Informational picture book. 4-8)

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