ORPHAN

A New Yorker writer with several children's books about wildlife to her credit describes adopting an unweaned ``chuck'' found near her Rhode Island home, raising him, and then returning him to the wild. Gracefully, succinctly, and without sentimentality, she characterizes Chuck as an engaging little chap with ``amazing energy and will''—and, meanwhile, unobtrusively tucks quite a lot of natural history into her accessible text; she even shapes the true facts into a satisfying drama, concluded by a poignant second and final farewell at hibernating time. Wildlife artist Morrell's soft-pencil b&w illustrations are appealing and precise. A charming vignette. (Nonfiction. 7-11)