"Despite its arresting cover and its focus on animal poems, this collection lacks consistency. The 14 poems highlight intriguing collective nouns and alternate between clever descriptions of real-life animals and off-the-wall fantasies about them. But often the poems' meters are wobbly, the conceits are labored, and the rhymes are off-center or forced. Likewise, Huber's intricate scratchboard illustrations, most of them enhanced with colored ink, are unevenly executed. They marvelously capture the delicate veins in a 'charm of butterflies,' the bold black-and-white designs contained in a 'crossing of zebras' and the terror of a scarecrow confronting a 'murder of crows.' But when depicting other animals, like 'a pounce of alley cats' or the armor-clad 'crash of rhinos,' the figures seem rigid and awkward. Sometimes the illustrations do not match a poem's content — only 17 of the author's 22 'cartload of monkeys' are shown, and the 'band of coyotes'giving a 1960s 'psychedelic' concert 'talking 'bout my generation' include, oddly, members tooting a kazoo and a hunting horn. A note from the author explains the etymologies of some favorite collective nouns. Patricia MacCarthy's unfortunately out-of-print Herds of Words remains the exemplar of this concept. Ages 8-12." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)