Nature Nonfiction

What's your favorite kind of music? There are many types of musicians—including birds! Songbirds can create all different kinds of music for different purposes. Learn about the different songbirds, their unique sounds, and where they live.

Native American tribes from the Northwest Coast learned to use the wood of cedar trees for many of their daily needs. Tribes used recycling to conserve resources hundreds of years ago. Pounding bark until it was fluffy to make diapers and with special thin branches called withes, cedar trees were soaked and used to make rope. What special technique did tribes use to take down big cedar trees?

Hop to it! Do you know how or why a kangaroo hops and leaps? Learn how their legs, feet, and tail help a kangaroo move which starts with bouncing! Like humans, kangaroos' legs are made for how they move! While we walk upright, they jump and leap! Kangaroos use their tail to slow down. Find out why they are the largest and most powerful marsupials!

Did you know there once was a dinosaur with colorful stripes? Go on a prehistoric journey to learn how dinosaurs had colorful feathers! See the different clues they left behind as fossils to help scientists learn about the past.

Abby wanted to be a penguin for the school play, but is cast as an owl instead! After complaining to her horseback-riding instructor, Abby learns a lesson on the important role barn owls play on farms. After seeing an owl in action, will she be able to proudly portray an owl in the play?

What were horses like one million years ago? Learn about the evolution of horses through history and how they adapted to their environment. How did horses go from being hunted by humans to being friends? Horses were domesticated to become more important to people's daily lives for work and transportation. What qualities do horses have that helped their survival and their human friends, too?

What makes fish great swimmers–and how do they breathe underwater? Different animals use their body in different ways to take in air, food, and water. Learn how fish use gills to take in oxygen from water, much like humans use lungs to breathe in oxygen from the air. Whales, dolphins and sea turtles come up for breath–are they fish? In ocean life, guess which fish have gills and which are not fish!

Did you know a flounder, a type of fish, develops from an egg to a full-grown adult in 2 years? Take a journey through deep waters to see how flounder change and grow to be as much as one foot long.

Have you ever seen a coyote? Coyotes live across North America and have earned quite the reputation as pests. Many people have begun to trap and kill them in order to protect their livestock—but they are fascinating animals with long history and event part of folklore. Learn about the coyote and their special behaviors and abilities!

Dogs are amazing creatures with amazing bodies! Discover how fur protects their delicate skin, and which body parts gives them balance. Did you know dogs can wiggle their ears in many directions? Learn more facts about dogs and how their unique anatomy is different from other animals.

In middle school, Gabrielle "Gabe" Ford developed a degenerative muscle disease, and was harassed by bullies as a result. She did her best to keep her head high, but it wasn't easy. Then Gabe got a dog, Izzy, who developed an uncannily similar disorder. They were invited to appear on Animal Planet to talk about their bond, which in turn led to an invitation to speak at a school. And so began Gabe's career as an anti-bullying advocate.

Nick is afraid of sharks. He'd much rather spend his time safely on the beach than in the water with sharks! To help Nick get over his fear, his sister takes him to an aquarium. Will this special trip help him learn that sharks aren't scary?

When Jennifer Doudna was a sixth grader in Hilo, Hawaii, she came home from school one afternoon and found a book on her bed. It was The Double Helix, James Watson’s account of how he and Francis Crick had discovered the structure of DNA, the spiral-staircase molecule that carries the genetic instruction code for all forms of life. This book guided Jennifer Doudna to focus her studies not on DNA, but on what seemed to take a backseat in biochemistry: figuring out the structure of RNA, a closely related molecule that enables the genetic instructions coded in DNA to express themselves.

This audiobook reveals the secret lives of salt marshes. Along the coasts, where ocean tides mix salt water with fresh water, nature has created salt marshes - soggy places full of natural wonders. For years, salt marshes were maligned, drained, or filled in. Now salt marshes are valued as the home of fascinating wildlife, including more than twenty different species of birds. Ornithologist and photographer Doug Wechsler takes the reader on a down-and-muddy tour of the year-round activity in these wonderlands.

Would you believe it if I told you that every bird you see - even the smallest hummingbird - is a dinosaur? Well, that’s what many scientists now believe! Follow along as scientists examine ancient fossils and pose new theories on how prehistoric dinosaurs evolved into today’s modern birds. Packed with exciting stories of unearthing ancient fossils and tales of what early feathered dinosaurs might have looked like, this book will have imaginations running wild. From the very first birds, with only tiny dino-fuzz covering their bodies, to the mystery of how dinosaurs finally took to the air, listeners will explore the startling connection between the birds they encounter every day and their very distant relatives.

As the third and final installment in the beloved Dinosaurs for Kids audiobook series, Dinosaurs for Kids, Volume 3 covers the remaining bases of the world's most famous dinosaurs, including a few lesser known, but equally fascinating species.

Leatherback sea turtles face one of their lives’ biggest challenges as soon as they’re hatched. Crawling out of their eggs on the sandy shore, they hurry to the sea in a race to escape those who see them as a tasty meal. If they survive and thrive, they can grow longer than an adult male is tall and weigh as much as a small car!

Every morning in the Japanese town of Shibuya, Professor Ueno awakens and is greeted by his loyal Akita dog, Hachiko. They enjoy a breakfast together before the professor leaves to catch the train to the school where he teaches. And Hachiko sits at the station eagerly awaiting his master’s return. Then one afternoon Professor Ueno does not return. And Hachiko waits. Days and weeks pass and still no one - not even the young boy Yasuo who comes to care for him - can persuade the faithful dog to leave his post. Years go by and yet still he waits.

Spend a day and night in the tundra! Learn about this cold habitat through the intriguing animals that call it home. Catch breakfast mid-flight with a peregrine falcon. Spend the afternoon snoozing with an Arctic fox. Take an evening trek with a herd of caribou.

How do you know that spring is finally coming? The geese, of course! All you have to do is look for the V-shape in the sky and listen for all that honking as they migrate back from Canada!