SEARCH FOR THE GOLDEN MOON BEAR

With characteristic verve, the author of The Tarantula Scientist(p. 182) reports on an expedition into Laos and Thailand, trailing an elusive new kind of bear—related to the indigenous Moon Bear, but with spectacular golden coloring. Along the way, she offers readers a gallery of other animals unknown to science that have been recently discovered in Southeast Asia. She offers an eye-opening account of how the work is done—not by plunging off into the trackless wild, but by combing local markets, zoos, and animal-rescue centers to gather hair samples of caged creatures for DNA analysis by a lab in Idaho. It’s also a quick but heartrending glimpse of the area’s violent recent history. Laced with captivating color photos and capped with an array of facts and resources about bears of all sorts, this pared-down version of the adult title should be irresistible to bear lovers and budding naturalists alike. (Nonfiction. 9-11)