BABY ANIMALS EATING

A longtime wildlife photographer presents an album of her photographs of baby animals eating.

Eszterhas, who has observed and photographed animals around the world, strings these irresistible images together with short explanations of what and how they’re eating. Brown bears, koalas, jackals, penguins, egrets, cheetahs, monkeys and chimpanzees, giraffes, warthogs, raccoons, orangutans, and sloths—the animals range from the familiar to the unusual, at least in a book for very young readers. Most of the pictures seem to have been taken in the wild, and often they include a parent: a mother brown bear giving her cub a fish; monkeys, chimps, and warthogs nursing from their mothers; father jackals and penguins regurgitating food for their offspring. The images expand to fill most spreads, and there are occasional insets to vary the design. A final spread introduces the photographer and seven more animals, including an orphaned serval kitten the author bottle-fed (as she recounted in Moto and Me, 2017). The descriptions are short and use appropriate vocabulary, including specialized terminology for the animal babies. The book could be shared one-on-one with even very young listeners, who will be entranced by the pictures and informed by the read-aloud text.

An appealing addition to any nature-themed collection.