You are a Bengal tiger cub, one of three -- Dacca, Rajpur, Raniganj -- abandoned by your mother. You are so cold and thin that someone with kind hands puts you on a heating pad and sits by you for hours, moistening your mouth with milk. When you give a weak cry and look up, there is a human face almost crying too. Your new mother is Helen Delaney Martini, who has already raised a lion cub in her New York apartment. Tigers in the bathtub will be no problem for her and her husband, Fred. This remarkable book -- strikingly striped as tigers are, sympathetically spoken as any child could wish -- tells the story of Helen Martini, founder of the Bronx Zoo's animal nursery in 1944 and its first woman zookeeper. Grade 1-3-Helen Martini cared for both lion and tiger cubs in her New York City apartment before building the Bronx Zoo's first nursery back in 1944. This simple account of how her husband and then Helen herself became animal keepers draws on Martini's long out-of-print adult book, My Zoo Family (Harper, 1955). Lyon places an introductory segment before the title page, inviting readers into the experience of the first lion cub Martini took in: "Suppose you were a lion cub-abandoned.- and a man came in the cage and lifted you into a case and put you in a car to go home with him." The story is then told in the third person to convey the early days of home animal care by the Martinis and the development of the nursery. The first golden cubs give way to a fine array of animals that have thrived in this much-needed facility. Catalanotto adds a bold graphic dimension to the story with torn-paper strips mounted as irregular picture panels on many pages. Charcoal sketches on brown paper are intermingled with full-color views. On a couple of pages, multiple images of Helen appear in a frame to emphasize the chaotic busyness of caring for energetic cubs and performing the many tasks of readying the nursery. A brief author's note adds a bit more information about the subject. This handsome and intriguing real-life story will be savored as independent and shared reading and useful as simple nonfiction for varied classroom purposes. Margaret Bush, Simmons College, Boston Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. K-Gr. 3. This picture-book biography recounts the remarkable story of Helen Delaney Martini, the founder of the Bronx Zoo's animal nursery. The childless Martini began taking care of baby tigers in her apartment, when her zookeeper husband brought the infants home. Later, she volunteered to set up a nursery. She eventually became the zoo's first woman zookeeper and successfully mothered 27 tigers, assorted primates, and other animals. Lyon's succinct, yet elegant, prose emphasizes Martini's dedication to the animals in her care, detailing how she and her husband often spent evenings at the zoo tending to the needy babies. Catalanotto's watercolor, charcoal, and torn-paper art is particularly effective here. Appropriate for a story set in the 1940s and 50s, his charcoal drawings suggest old newsreels. Vertically torn paper panels, which enable him to depict several different scenes in one spread, also add to the nostalgic aura. An author's note fills in some details of Martini's life and mentions her autobiography, My Zoo Family (1955). This will be popular with animal fans and classes studying zoos or careers. Kay Weisman Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved George Ella Lyon is the author of Trucks Roll! , Planes Fly! , and Boats Float! , cowritten with her son Benn. Among George Ella’s other books are the ALA Notable All the Water in the World , What Forest Knows , and Time to Fly . A former Kentucky Poet Laureate, she lives with her family in Lexington, Kentucky. Visit her online at GeorgeEllaLyon.com. Peter Catalanotto has written seventeen books for children, including Monkey & Robot , More of Monkey & Robot , The Newbies , Question Boy Meets Little Miss Know-It-All , Ivan the Terrier , Matthew A.B.C. , and Emily’s Art , of which School Library Journal said in a starred review, “whether viewed from afar or up close, this creative and heartfelt book is a masterpiece.” In 2008, First Lady Laura Bush commissioned Peter to illustrate the White House holiday brochure. He currently teaches the first children’s book writing course offered by both Columbia University and Pratt Institute. Peter has illustrated more than thirty books for other writers including George Ella Lyon, Cynthia Rylant, Mary Pope Osborne, Joanne Ryder, Robert Burleigh, and Megan McDonald.