ONE DAY IN THE PRAIRIE

A fine novelist (her Julie of the Wolves won a Newbery) and naturalist describes a day's events in an Oklahoma wildlife refuge. Massive bison and charming prairie dog are the most conspicuous inhabitants, but George introduces dozens of other animals and plants, explaining how each fits into this small world. The device of a boy who spends the day trying to get a photograph of the prairie dog doing the back flip that warns of danger helps tie it all together; an impending tornado, first sensed by the buffalo, adds drama. The carefully detailed drawings on every page are as important as the text; format is similar to Wilder's Little House books, to which this would be a perfect complement. Every line of this brief narrative is packed with information, so vividly presented that even the active city child should comprehend the fascination that could keep a boy "as still as a stone," watching; it's a persuasive brief for preservation, and a wonderfully composed whole. Index.