The Creek

If you're looking for a Disney-style book for young readers, put this one back on the shelf. On the other hand, if you want a book that gives young readers (and adults) a glimpse of true-to-life animal characters in real outdoor situations, read on. 'Cause folks, these animals act just like the creatures that live in the stream behind your house. Or even the woods and fields around the local golf course. You live in a big city? Great! You can learn just how animals live outside your world of streets and high-rises. The Creek is a story about a family of muskrats who live, well, on a creek. Not sure what a muskrat might be? Read the book. How about a mink? Or groundhogs, coyotes, raccoons and skunks. (Just about everyone knows what a skunk is, right?) Anyway, on the creek you'll meet them all. Doing what they really do in the wild. You'll learn what they eat, how they interact with other animals, who their friends and enemies might be and, finally, how animal behavior is very much like our own. Sometimes it's sad, but most of the time it's wonderful and all the time it's educational. Life on the creek is not for the faint-hearted. Beauty, a young female muskrat, is raising her two twins, Chunk and Slim, without the aid of a mate. She has a valuable ally, though; in her father old One-Eye (the wisest, toughest 'rat on the waterway). Between the two of them they must teach the twins how to survive on a stream filled with danger and adventure. Want a children's book that really teaches a thing or two about the outdoors? The Creek is the right one. Read it and see.