Animals

The Last Wild

In a world where animals no longer exist, twelve-year-old Kester Jaynes sometimes feels like he hardly exists either. Locked away in a home for troubled children, he’s told there’s something wrong with him. So when he meets a flock of talking pigeons and a bossy cockroach, Kester thinks he’s finally gone crazy. But the animals have something to say. And they need him. The pigeons fly Kester to a wild place where the last creatures in the land have survived. A wise stag needs Kester’s help, and together they must embark on a great journey, joined along the way by an overenthusiastic wolf cub, a military-trained cockroach, a mouse with a ritual for everything, and a stubborn girl named Polly. The animals saved Kester Jaynes. But can Kester save the animals?

Avati: Discovering Arctic Ecology

The Arctic is not a barren, frigid landscape filled with only ice and snow. It is a complex ecosystem that contains many thriving habitats, each supported by dozens of ecological relationships between plants and animals. From the many animals that live and hunt at the floe edge to the hundreds of insects that abound on the summer tundra, this book gives a detailed bird’s-eye view of the fascinating ways that animals, plants, and insects coexist in the Arctic ecosystem.

I Want My Hat Back

A picture-book delight by a rising talent tells a cumulative tale with a mischievous twist.The bear’s hat is gone, and he wants it back. Patiently and politely, he asks the animals he comes across, one by one, whether they have seen it. Each animal says no, some more elaborately than others. But just as the bear begins to despond, a deer comes by and asks a simple question that sparks the bear’s memory and renews his search with a vengeance. Told completely in dialogue, this delicious take on the classic repetitive tale plays out in sly illustrations laced with visual humor— and winks at the reader with a wry irreverence that will have kids of all ages thrilled to be in on the joke.

Whiskers, Tails & Wings

A collection of folktales from Mexico. Senor Grillo, the fearless cricket, uses his wits to battle Señor Puma. Monsi, the humble sea turtle, braves the ocean’s depths for a grain of sand. And persistent Pulga, the flea, makes sure that Man and Woman are itching to get to work.