Home for a Tiger, Home for a Bear

This picture book from a British team offers a rhythmic cataloguing of some familiar animals and their habitats. Some of the rhymes can be clunky (""Humpbacked camel, with wide feet,/ Stands on sands of desert heat./ Slithering snake, with stretchy jaw,/ Skulks slyly on the sandy floor""), but the eye-catching artwork resembles linocuts. Each spread features a pair of animals that shares the same environment (e.g., kangaroo and koala), with one creature receiving slightly more than full-page billing and the other a panel or vignette on the facing page. A thick black line defines each creature and its habitat, while fiesta-bright colors bring them to life. Text twists and curves alongside a set of animal tracks. Though some of the descriptions feel cliched (e.g., ""soaring eagle""), the younger set will appreciate the book's soothing rhythm and sun-drenched, playful art. In one scene, a curved-neck heron fishes in a busy stream; in another, three deer solemnly stand in a birch-lined meadow. The latter third of the book provides additional facts about the featured animals and their homes, including a final spread devoted exclusively to spiders (at least one can be found on each spread). Nature-loving readers will enjoy this quick mini-safari to habitats around the globe. Ages 5-9.