Slip the Otter Finds a Home

Adele Ashby was the former editor of Canadian Materials for Schools and Libraries.

Flip is an unhappy dolphin. He is smaller than his peers and cannot leap as high or swim as fast. Consequently, he is left out of their games. He practises all the dolphin tricks, but no one will play with him — not dolphin, walrus, polar bear, or seal. One day he comes upon a group of dolphins trying to rescue a baby caught in a cave. Flip is small enough to slip through the opening, and he saves the day.

Slip is a playful otter whose greatest delight is gliding down a long, slippery mud slide. When the food around her home is depleted, she and her family have to move. But Slip misses her old home until she discovers new friends and a new mud slide.

Olena Kassian, who has illustrated a number of other children’s books, has, in these titles, produced pictures for her own text. A result of the collaboration between OWL magazine and Golden Press, they are part of Golden’s Look-Look Book series. Undoubtedly superior to the other titles in the series, they are nonetheless not up to the usual standard set by OWL. They are, however, well produced and inexpensive and, even though the animals are anthropornorphized, they do meet a need for natural science material at a primary level.