Tiger Trek by Ted Lewin is a gorgeous book about a mother tiger and her family. Lewin's illustration career began in adventure magazines (per his biography) and that attention to detail — photorealism — shines through in this book's stunning water color illustrations.

Picture books often gloss over or avoid completely the more violent aspects of predatory animals — namely their hunting and eating of prey. Tiger Trek doesn't, nor does it make a feature out of it. It is there as part of a mother tiger's need to survive and to feed her offspring.

Recommended by the Castro Valley public library ( )