Category: Reviews

BOOKS: Animal experimentation: Cruelty or Science?

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1994:
Animal experimentation: Cruelty
or Science? by Nancy Day. E n s l o w
Publishers Inc. (Bloy St. & Ramsey Ave.,
Box 777, Hillside, NJ 07205-0777),
1994. 128 pages, $17.95 hardcover.
This is one of the titles of Enslow’s
“Issues in Focus” series, books tailored to
readers aged 12 and up, exploring current
controversies. Animal Experimentation
examines the pros and cons of vivisection in
as fair and unbiased a treatment as possible,
quoting experts and spokespersons from both
camps.

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BOOKS: The Secret Oceans

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1994:

The Secret Oceans, by Betty Ballantine. Bantam Books (1540 Broadway,
New York, NY 10036), 1994. $29.95 hardcover, illustrated.
February 15, 2000: a magical community of talking dolphins kidnaps undersea
explorers in a desperate attempt to teach humankind intermingled lessons in planetary survival
and compassion for other species. The plot is predictable, but the message bears repeating.
No less than 12 artists contributed to the stunning beauty of the book, making it visually
appealing to all ages. The text, however, would speak best to 10-to-16-year-olds, particularly
fans of Seaquest, for whom it would make a perfect holiday gift.

BOOKS: The Cage

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1994:

The Cage, by Audrey Schulman. Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill (POB 2225,
Chapel Hill, NC 27515-2225), 1994. $17.95 hardcover.
Turning the convention of the glamorous lady photographer upside down, Audrey
Schulman’s first novel describes the attempt of a decidedly unglamorous and not just a little
perverse female photographer’s attempt to prove herself among male colleagues on a cata-
strophic trip to record the lives of polar bears near Churchill, Manitoba. The gay vegetarian
dies first. A quasi-vegetarian herself, the heroine turns to devouring meat and wearing fur
even before the real crisis begins. The Cage is a fine outdoors yarn, actually not unsympa-
thetic toward animal rights; Jack London would have approved, on both counts. Yet it
stretches credibility, since countless vegetarians live easily through the same expedition each
winter, via tours promoted by Natural Habitat Adventures Inc., who provided the photograph
above.

BOOKS: The Aye-Aye and I

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1994:

The Aye-Aye and I, by Gerald Durrell. Touchstone Books (1230 Avenue of
the Americas, New York, NY 10020), 1992; first Touchstone edition 1994. 175
pages. $11.00 paperback.
My favorite gift on my eighth birthday was a copy of Gerald Durrell’s first book,
My Family And Other Animals, about finding his calling as a naturalist while growing up on
the Greek island of Corfu during the 1920s. I read and reread it to tatters. Thus I declared dibs
on reviewing The Aye-Aye and I––and was hugely disappointed, as well as relieved that I may
have missed little by missing 21 of the subsequent 22 Durrell titles. Once known chiefly as
younger brother of the novelist Lawrence Durrell, Gerald has now sold far more books than
Lawrence ever did, as well as becoming legendary for his television specials and species con-
servation work via the Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust. This has apparently convinced him
that his galloping trots are more fascinating tthan the lemurs of Madagascar, his nominal
topic this time in a tediously whimsical tome that might have made a good newspaper feature.

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BOOKS: Skywater

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1994:

Skywater, by Melinda Worth Popham. Greywolf Press (2402 University
Ave., St. Paul, MN 55114), 1990. 206 pages, $17.95 hardcover.
Because Melinda Worth Popham’s Skywater is fiction, it won’t be shelved alongside
Grady’s work in libraries; but Popham does convincingly describe life from the perspective of
six vividly introduced coyotes, who flee from the loss of their water source due to pollution,
in quest of the water that sometimes falls from above and lies beyond the beyond. There are
memorable human characters as well, including a trapper who might seem overdrawn if we
hadn’t met his clone many times. Though never a big seller, the mythic appeal of Skywater is
such that it may endure to become an acknowledged classic––and to gain deserved recognition
when eventually it is discovered by Hollywood.

BOOKS: The World of the Coyote

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1994:

The World of the Coyote, by Wayne Grady. Sierra Club Books (730 Polk
St., San Francisco, CA 94109), 1994. 143 pages, 72 color photos, $25.00 hard-
back.
“In the early 1940s,” Wayne Grady recounts, “the citizens of Klamath County,
Oregon, instituted an intensive campaign to eradicate the coyote. By 1947 there was not a
single coyote in Klamath County. But there were field mice. The cost in lost crops soared
into the millions of dollars, far more than had ever been attributed to damage by coyotes. In
the end, Klamath County began to reintroduce the coyote.”
This episode alone is worth the price of the book ––and is just one of many quotable
passages in a richly illustrated text that belongs in every school library. Those who already
know and appreciate coyotes will be enthralled; so will be many who have never met one.

BOOKS: The Tribe of Tiger: Cats and their Culture

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1994:

The Tribe of Tiger: Cats and
their Culture, by Elizabeth Marsh-
all Thomas, Simon & Schuster (1230 Ave.
of the Americas, New York NY 10020),
1994, 240 pages, hardcover $20.00.
From the author of The Hidden Life
of Dogs comes a new volume revealing the
social life of cats. This book too displays
Thomas’s uncanny ability to observe a
species and to describe the unique ways its
members act among themselves, without
humanizing them in the least. Raised in a
family of anthropologists, Thomas recalls her
first experiences with larger members of the
cat tribe in the Kalahari desert of South
Africa. Obviously her discoveries there of
the potential for cat/human relationships pro-
foundly influenced her work.

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BOOKS: Operation Pet Rescue: Survivors of the Oakland, California Firestorm

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1994:

Operation Pet Rescue: Survivors of the
Oakland, California Firestorm, by Gregory
N. Zampolis. J.N. Townsend Publishing (12
Greenleaf Drive, Exeter, NH 03833), 1994. 170
pages. $21.00 hardback.
This was a book I couldn’t put down! It held per-
sonal associations for me, a resident of Berkeley––adjoining
Oakland––during the 1991 fire and aftermath it describes.
Berkeley too sustained major fire losses. I was there as well
for the fire of 1970, which also razed many homes, fueled by
dry eucalyptus, and heard many times of my mother-in-law’s
flight, on foot, firstborn in a perambulator, from the 1923
fire that threatened to annihilate town and campus. Moreover,
as I read, a forest fire raged a little over a hour’s drive away
from me in Washington state.

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Music Reviews

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1994:

Animal Tracks, written and recorded by
Dwayne Robertson; distributed by The Spayed
Club (POB 1145, Frazer, PA 19355). $9.00.
The first song of the four-song cassette Animal
Tracks could be a popular hit were it to enter the main-
stream. “Friends for Life” is reminiscent of a railroad bal-
lad with touches of the classic “Mr. Bojangles.” It tells the
true story of a loyal dog, Shep, who waits for his master
by the railroad tracks for six years. Every day he meets
the train, and every day he is disappointed, for his master
was dead when put aboard.
The other three songs are considerably less art-
ful, but carry important messages. They are, however,
too sad for me to enjoy. Thus I question their application.
Perhaps they could be useful as part of a humane society
program, but my experience is that people turn away from
messages that are depressing or overly preachy.
I’d market “Friends for Life” as a single, or put it
on a tape with more appealing songs if I were serious
about reaching the general public.
––Kim Bartlett

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