Nonfiction Animal Biology

Scrub all you want, but you'll never get your body entirely clean. From rash causing itch mites to bacteria swimming in your stomach, meet the tiny creatures hitching a ride on your body.

Jeanne Villepreux-Power was never expected to be a scientist. Born in 1794 in a French village more than 100 miles from the ocean, she pursued an improbable path that brought her to the island of Sicily. There, she took up natural history and solved the two-thousand-year-old mystery of how the argonaut octopus gets its shell. In an era when most research focused on dead specimens, Jeanne was determined to experiment on living animals. And to keep sea creatures alive for her studies, she had to invent a contraption to hold them: the aquarium.

On remote Codfish Island off the southern coast of New Zealand live the last 91 kakapo parrots on earth. These trusting, flightless, and beautiful birds - the largest and most unusual parrots on earth - have suffered devastating population loss. Now, on an island refuge with the last of the species, New Zealand’s National Kakapo Recovery Team is working to restore the kakapo population. With the help of 14 humans who share a single hut and a passion for saving these odd ground-dwelling birds, the kakapo are making a comeback in New Zealand.

With three hearts and blue blood, its gelatinous body unconstrained by jointed limbs or gravity, the octopus seems to be an alien, an inhabitant of another world. It’s baggy, boneless body sprouts eight arms covered with thousands of suckers—suckers that can taste as well as feel. The octopus also has the powers of a superhero: it can shape-shift, change color, squirt ink, pour itself through the tiniest of openings, or jet away through the sea faster than a swimmer can follow.

A tiny honeybee emerges through the wax cap of her cell. Driven to protect and take care of her hive, she cleans the nursery and feeds the larvae and the queen. But is she strong enough to fly? Not yet! Apis builds wax comb to store honey and transfers pollen from other bees into the storage. She defends the hive from invaders. And finally, she begins her new life as an adventurer. The confining walls of the hive fall away as Apis takes to the air, finally free, into a clear blue sky full of promise.

What do you know about starfish? Beginning listeners will get their feet wet with these literacy-building introductions to ocean animals.

What do you know about rays? Beginning listeners will get their feet wet with these literacy-building introductions to ocean animals.

What do you know about clown fish? Beginning listeners will get their feet wet with these literacy-building introductions to ocean animals. In addition to curricular information, social-emotional questions encourage reflection and family/educator engagement tips help connect the topic to the listener's life. These books are sure to make a splash!

What do you know about dolphins? Beginning listeners will get their feet wet with these literacy-building introductions to ocean animals. In addition to curricular information, social-emotional questions encourage reflection and family/educator engagement tips help connect the topic to the listener's life.

What do you know about sharks? Beginning listeners will get their feet wet with these literacy-building introductions to ocean animals.

What do you know about jellyfish? Beginning listeners will get their feet wet with these literacy-building introductions to ocean animals.

What roams through grassland habitats? Discover bison, elephants, giraffes, kangaroos, lions, and zebra. Pair this nonfiction title with its fiction companion book, My Baby Elephant.

Whether they're scrambling up trees or scampering across lawns, squirrels are fun animals to watch! Beginning audiences can learn about these furry backyard visitors through low-level text in this engaging title.

Meet animals that live in the desert, including camels, lizards, owls, snakes, spiders, and tortoises. Pair this nonfiction title with its fiction companion book, No Bugs Here.

Dive beneath the waves to meet the crabs, fish, turtles, whales, and seaweed that live in the ocean habitat. Pair this nonfiction title with its fiction companion book, The Fish.

¿Quién es la criatura más hambrienta en el mar del sur? El camarón antártico puede moverse en cardúmenes y el bacalao azul puede estar cazando para cenar, pero ninguno es lo suficientemente feroz como para estar en la cima de la red trófica. Este es un cuento con sabor a "pescado" sobre quién se come a quién. Los depredadores se vuelven presas y finalmente, sólo un animal llega a la cima. Bucea dentro del rítmico texto y averigua quién podría ser.

Mary Holland capta los primeros meses de la vida de un búho. Los grandes ojos y las esponjosas plumas se robarán el corazón de los lectores mientras aprenden cómo los padres de los búhos carabo norteamericanos preparan a sus jóvenes críos para el gran mundo fuera del nido. Acompaña a Otis mientras aprende a comer, pelea con su hermana, y se prepara para alzar el vuelo.

Hibernation is a cycle that some animals go through every year. Most people know that bears hibernate. But why do they hibernate? And what other animals hibernate?

Southern white rhinos are in trouble. For years, a rumor has been spreading that their horns can be used to cure cancer, and poachers have been targeting these gentle creatures. Sandra Markle takes listeners behind the scenes to see how civilians, volunteer organizations, and African governments are working together to protect rhinos.

The monarch is perhaps the best known of all North American butterflies. Young listeners will learn about the monarch's cycles, from eggs, to larva stage, to pupa stage, to becoming the adult butterfly.