Animals

The Seed and the Giant Saguaro

A packrat, carrying fruit from the giant saguaro, is chased by various desert animals and inadvertently helps spread the cactus’s seed. Includes information on saguaros.

Water Buffalo Days: Growing Up In Vietnam

As a young boy growing up in the hills of central Vietnam, Nhuong’s companion was Tank, the family water buffalo. When bullies harassed Nhuong, Tank sent them packing. When a wild tiger threatened the entire village, Tank defeated it. He led the herd and adopted a lonely puppy. Tank was Nhuong’s best friend.Nhuong gives readers a glimpse of himself when he was their age, and tells a thrilling story of how he and Tank together faced the dangers of life in the Vietnamese jungle which was their home.

How Snowshoe Hare Rescued The Sun: A Tale From The Arctic

When the demons who live under the earth steal the sun leaving the tundra in darkness, the animals send Bear, Wolf, and finally Snowshoe Hare to bring it back.

Nutik, The Wolf Pup

In an Eskimo village at the top of the world lived a little boy whose name was Amaroq. Named for the great wolf leader who saved the life of his big sister, Julie, Amaroq loved wolves as much as his big sister did.

One day Julie brings home a sickly wolf pup named Nutik for Amaroq to feed and tend. “Don’t fall in love with Nutik,” Julie warns, “or your heart will break when the wolves come to take their pup home.” Amaroq feeds and cares for Nutik, and soon the fuzzy little pup is romping and playing and following Amaroq everywhere. Amaroq and Nutik become best friends, but soon it’s time for Nutik to rejoin his wolf family. Will Amaroq be strong like the great wolf leader he was named after and be able to let Nutik go?

In this adventure-first told in Julie’s Wolf Pack, sequel to the Newbery Medal-winning Julie of the Wolves Jean Craighead George brings the Arctic world of Julie and her family to a picturebook audience.

Muu, Moo!: Rimas de animales/Animal Nursery Rhymes (Spanish Edition)

This bilingual collection of traditional animal nursery rhymes from Spain, Latin America, and the United States is sure to delight readers young and old. Includes 17 poems handpicked by Ada and Campoy, along with five of their own original poems.

Saving the Baghdad Zoo

The Baghdad zoo was once home to more than six hundred magnificent animals. But after the war in Iraq began in 2003, the city faced widespread destruction. When U. S. Army Captain William Sumner was asked to check out the state of the zoo, he found that it, too, was devastated. Hundreds of animals were missing, and the few remaining were in desperate need of care. And so Captain Sumner accepted a new mission. Together with an international team of zoologists, veterinarians, conservationists, and dedicated animal lovers, Captain Sumner worked tirelessly to save the neglected—but tenacious—animals of Baghdad. Saving the Baghdad Zoo tells the poignant stories of these remarkable animals. Meet the abandoned lions who roamed an empty palace with no food or drink; the camel, Lumpy, who survived transport through sniper fire; the tigers, Riley and Hope, who traveled 7,000 miles from home; and many more. The Baghdad Zoo, open once again to the people of Iraq, has become an oasis of hope and safety in a city where both are precious gifts.

Click here to read the Worlds of Words review.

Pika: Life In The Rocks

A pika scurries across a rock pile high in the Rocky Mountians. He watches out for hungry hawks and weasels. Quickly, he nips leafy twigs off bushes and carries them to his rocky den.  This hamster-size cousin of the rabbit is storing up food.  He will build a “hay pile” as big as a bathtub.  As summer changes to autumn and winter settles in, the pika feeds from his hay pile and tunnets through the snow.  In the spring, he sings for a mate.  Soon, pika pups are climbing on the rocks.

Stunning photographs catch the pike in the act of living naturally.  A fact-filled text tells the story of how one of the world’s cutest animals can survive when life is pretty rocky.

Have You Ever Seen An Octopus With A Broom?

Have You Ever Seen an Octopus with a Broom? compares human and animal tools and reveals surprising facts about how animals clean house, fish for food and even play percussion. Maybe you’ve never seen an octopus with a broom – but these animals use jets of water like a broom to sweep out leftovers after a meal, and also sweep sand and small stones out of their den to make it bigger. The Spin It! activity at the end of the book will provide hours of educational enjoyment. Each informational picture book in the Have You Ever Seen series uses lighthearted human-animal comparisons to teach primary-level children about animals.