PRINCE WILLIAM

After a huge oil spill in Prince William Sound, Denny finds a slimed baby seal on the beach and takes him to a vet. The seal is cleaned, nursed back to health, and elaborately taught to fend for himself in the wild; meanwhile, Denny witnesses volunteers working to wash beaches, contain the oil slick, and rescue wildlife. This book is completely issue-driven; the writer makes no effort to enliven the bland plot with dramatic tension or details of character. Meanwhile, the big illustrations' yank at the heartstrings seems calculated—after weeks of rehabilitation, the once pathetic seal pup is seen sleeping happily on a pillow, a fuzzy toy seal under his flipper. In an afterword, the author describes children joining the rescue effort after the Alaskan oil spill of '89; those brief paragraphs are a better motivator than the rest of this heavy-handed effort. (Picture book. 7-9)