FLYING EAGLE

“Tired hunter, / must succeed. / Baby hungry, / mouth to feed.” In this serenade to the Serengeti a tawny eagle sets out in search of food for his chick. Poised gracefully against a brilliant sunset sky in Ray’s Impressionistic, semi-abstract illustrations, the eagle soars over river and plain, hippos and crocodiles, a pride of lions on the prowl and a herd of zebras. At last, after several failures and a narrow escape from a poacher’s arrow, the eagle chases down a slower bird and returns to the moonlit nest. The clipped verse gives the lie to the “Peaceable Kingdom” promulgated in countless children’s books and cartoons—the landscape swarms with predators looking for dinner and prey seeking to avoid becoming same. Tawny eagles are one of Africa’s largest birds of prey, as the author notes in the afterword; this one, and his mate and chick, make attractively fierce-looking feathered guides to the renowned wildlife preserve. (bibliography) (Informational picture book. 4-8)