Boffa, Alessandro. You're an animal.

Viskovitz! Random House, Vintage. 159p. c2002. 0-375-70483-3. $12.00. SA

What a Wild Kingdom Viskovitz lives in! In 20 fables he is bound by the laws of a tough Mother Nature to eat and be eaten, love and be loved, live and die. Viskovitz follows the urges of his species, always searching for his true love. Ljuba, aided and/or hindered by his pals Zucotic, Petrovic, and Lopez. He is variously a dormouse awakening reluctantly from hibernation, a snail that falls in love with himself, a praying mantis who loses body parts for love, a finch with a cuckoo problem, an elk with a harem to protect, a dung beetle who just hates manure. The science is detailed and accurate, the attitude wry. As a mantis he asks his mother what his father had been like. "Crunchy, a bit salty, rich in fiber," she replies. As a sponge, every sponge around fertilizes him. "Damnation," I cursed. "Damnation! Even my daughter had gotten me pregnant. I was my own mother-in-law. Damn it, my own mother-in-law!!!" Finally, as a microbe in the Precambrian period, he learns that to kill and devour others is good--it's called heterotrophic life. And so he eats Zucotic the bacillus, Petrovic the vibrio and Lopez the spirillure. He becomes an animal but learns the final lesson--death. Boffa's tales are witty, satirical, amusing, and full of wisdom. You will never look at a dung beetle the same way again. Janet Julian, Grafton, MA