Everybody knows the kangaroo, the strange animal who carries her babies around with her in a pouch. But few people know that there are pouched animals that resemble mice, cats, wolves, bears, moles and rabbits. Why is a tiger cat not a cat? Why is a koala bear not a bear? A young person will find the answer to these questions and will learn how to tell apart other pouched animals, called marsupials. 

He or she will also find out why these animals, with the exception of the American opossum, make their home only in Australia. How did they get there? Why don't they live anywhere else? The reader will get some idea of the great geologic changes that distributed animals all over the earth.

From the dust jacket