OWL

One of four new additions to the intelligently conceived and beautifully executed ``See How They Grow'' series (simultaneously published: Butterfly; Foal; Fox). Here, an appealing barn owl is depicted—in splendid close-up color-photo images against the publisher's trademark white—hatching and then at one, three, six, eight, ten, and twelve weeks, when he is ``almost full- grown'' and able to fly and hunt. Taylor catches the appealing young owl and his parents in many poses, including several in flight; the pictorial information is extended with still more detail in meticulously drawn borders (by Jane Cradock-Watson) that show, for example, 16 stages of the chick hatching. A last double spread, plus endpaper recapitulation of the borders, summarizes the presentation while dramatizing the owl's growth. Excellent nonfiction for the very young. (Nonfiction. 3-7)