Time to Eat
*Starred Review* With a giant panda munching a stalk of bamboo on the cover, this small, square picture book presents an exciting introduction to what animals eat and how they collect, store, and digest their food. A baby blue whale drinks the equivalent of 800 glasses of milk every day and can gain 200 pounds every 24 hours, for example. Ostriches eat rocks that help grind up the plants that make up their diet. The real zoological facts are as thrilling as monster stories: the black widow spider paralyzes insects and wraps its still-alive victims in a smothering silk cocoon, while the anaconda, which needs only four or five meals a year and swallows its prey whole, can open its jaws wide enough to fit creatures as large as a deer or a pig. In contrast, the shrew can die of starvation if it goes two or three hours without eating. The beautiful cut- and torn-paper collage illustrations are as expertly colored, detailed, and expressive as in the creators� previous titles, and the layout, featuring plenty of white space, nicely spotlights each animal in action; one terrific double-page spread shows a tender image of a pelican reaching down deep into its mother�s throat for regurgitated food. Older readers will want to move on to the detailed, illustrated appendix, which offers more information about each featured animal and includes a reference to Darwin. Another standout science title from the husband-and-wife team. Preschool-Grade 3. --Hazel Rochman