[Path of Hunters: Animal Struggle in a Meadow] is a disappointing attempt to draw attention to the beauty and brutality of nature through a series of interrelated dramas of life and death among field creatures. By portraying the activities of representative mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and insects through the four seasons, Peck clearly demonstrates the interdependence of living things and clarifies such expressions as "balance of nature" and "web of life." However, the chronicle is too poetic and its attitude of eat or be eaten is too relentlessly grim. Moreover, descriptions of animals who "ache with fatigue," "hiss with disdain," and are "insane with hunger" may disturb backyard naturalists. [Glen] Rounds's Wildlife at Your Doorstep … and Swamp Life … treat field and stream ecology more suitably for young readers.

Ethel R. Hardee, "The Book Review: 'Path of Hunters: Animal Struggle in a Meadow'," in School Library Journal, an appendix...