With her browns and blues drawing us into the natural world of the platypus, Caroline Arnold introduces us to this very unusual animal which lives in Australia and has the feet and bill of a duck and the fur and the tail of a beaver. It's a warm spring night when we come upon this nocturnal creature and she has left her burrow of 60 feet and is in search of a good meal of shrimp, horsehair worms or caddisfly larvae. The text is informative but not overwhelming and the pictures are large enough to make this a good choice to read aloud to a group. You really feel you are "there" in this Australian landscape watching the platypus swim, prepare for her babies and deal with her predators. Informative and gentle. 24 pages Ages 4-8