Doctor Dolittle and the Secret Lake
by . It is difficult to comment on this last of the Dr. Dolittle books because we keep remembering a child who, a quarter of a century ago, carted the great man’s adventures to the tops of apple trees and the far reaches of haymows. We keep wondering what she would have thought of this book; on the whole we think she would have enjoyed it. The big turtle’s eyewitness account of Noah’s flood stands among the best of the stories the doctor has picked up from his animal friends, and plenty of space has been allotted to the old, chatty entourage — Polynesia the parrot, Gub-Gub the pig, Cheapside the cockney sparrow, and the rest. And through all these new adventures the doctor remains himself, imperturbable, note-taking, magnificent as ever.