APES

In handsome oversize format, a look at gibbons, gorillas, chimpanzees, and orangutans. The descriptive text explores habits, anatomy, and life cycle; beautifully detailed paintings—creatively intermixed with the text without the welter of sidebars, boxes, and so forth that frequently disfigure nonfiction—show apes leaping, climbing, sleeping, playing, or nursing in their forest habitats. There's a brief section on conservation, plus capsule reports on three people who have worked to protect these endangered animals. While relating much that's of interest, the text is not especially precise or detailed: ``The siamang [gibbon] is bigger than any of the others, and almost twice as heavy''—but how big? How heavy? ``Big ears help chimpanzees to hear well,'' but orangutans are shown with small ears—is their hearing poor? Lemmon doesn't say. An attractive purchase, nonetheless, for nature browsers. An endpaper world map shows the apes' limited ranges. (Nonfiction. 7- 10)