Amazon ABC

The enthusiasm for wildlife shared by this mother-daughter naturalist team (Walrus: On Location) shines through once again in their latest effort, an alphabet book featuring animals and insects indigenous to the Amazon rain forest. Minimal text-the name of the creature and, when warranted, parenthetical pronunciation guides-leaves all of the reader's attention to the wondrous photographs. Similar in clarity, composition and style to National Geographic images, examples of various animal species in natural settings illustrate the letters of the alphabet. P for ""Parrot,"" for instance, features four types of hookbills. Facts on all of the animals are included in brief, informative endnotes. The strikingly similar Amazon Alphabet (reviewed above), with its lustrous, realistic oil paintings, bespeaks a more subtle artistry, but the Darlings succeed heartily in what they set out to accomplish: introducing young readers to some of the exotic inhabitants of a remote, largely unexplored place. Ages 3-up. (Mar.)