It is said that the eyes are the window to the soul; but how do eyes work, exactly? This collection of books helps young readers understand eyes in all their complexity. From how sight differs from one animal to another to the inner structure of a human eye, there is a great deal to learn. This book list is designed for readers of all ages, including more elementary explanations through more advanced texts. Contributed by: Mary Lanni
This title describes the invention and development of artificial eyes. It explores the trials and tribulations along with the technological advances seen today. Includes glossary, websites, and bibliography for further reading.
The Eye in 3D presents information on the human eye, discussing its structure, function, and importance, complemented by labeled diagrams that provide an in-depth look beneath the surface.
Young readers are introduced to the nature and structure of the eye and the process through which the eye and the brain work together to create vision.
Duprat’s Eye Spy uses liftable flaps to show how all different kinds of animals see the same scene, from sharp-eyed eagles to purely light-sensing earthworms.
Eyes
By: Pete Jenkins
Illustrated by: Hazel Quintanilla
A boy sees his own eyes and his friends’ eyes and wonders about the ways they are different and what they do.
Little readers will learn about their eyes while strengthening their reading skills. Simple, short sentences appear alongside colorful photographs.
From summer, to fall, to winter, to spring, the seasons are relatively predictable and bring with them new and exciting activities in which to participate. Animals and humans alike adapt to weather changes as temperatures grow colder or warmer. The books in this list include information about the seasons from various perspectives, including the changes animals make over the course of a year and why seasons happen at all. Activities are also included to help readers understand seasons first-hand. Contributed by: Mary Lanni
Introduces weather and the seasons, describing what is a cloud, why rainbows form, and how animals migrate for the winter. This book also includes four weather-related science projects.
From snowplows to skyscraper nests and rooftop gardens, life in the city changes from season to season. Discover what animals live in the city. Learn how smog forms in summer. Real-life photographs follow the seasons and capture the beauty of a year in the city.
From hibernation to baby animals and falling leaves, life in the forest changes from season to season. Discover why snow is good for trees. Learn how wildfires help the forest grow. Real-life photographs follow the seasons and capture the beauty of a year in the forest.
While we are sleeping, there is a world of animals up and about. Learn more about nocturnal animals with this list of books.
Rhyming text introduces animals that live in the forest during the day and at night, while readers can count how many animals appear in the illustrations based on the number indicated.
In this counting book, Daisy’s mother tells her of the many animals in the world who swim and play and fly while Daisy is asleep, from one tiger hunting in the jungle to ten penguins jumping out of the icy sea.
Did you know that the luna moth only flutters around at night–or that it has a wingspan as wide as a bowl of soup? This reader is packed with interesting facts about all the creepy animals that we never get to see during the daytime, like the barn owl, the blind cavefish, and the vampire squid.
This informative book presents 100 details about nocturnal animals, including information on their heightened senses, communication in the dark, bioluminescence, and hunting at night.
What do animals need? In this colorful intermediate reader, Lindeen describes the needs of various animals. Each page features one or two sentences of information written in a child-friendly manner and a brilliant close-up photo. At the back of the book, caregivers can find close reading questions, suggestions for finding science in the world around them, a list of recommendations for sites and books for future learning, and tips for caregivers to practice reading fluency with their children. Includes a list of high frequency words and content words listed in the book. Beginning readers ages six to ten and their caregivers will enjoy learning more about animals through this informational text. Readers may be interested in other titles from the “Read and Discover Science” series as well: What Plants Need, Ideas from Nature, and Animals Help Plants. Recommended for early elementary science classrooms.
While April 10 is National Farm Animals Day, any day is a good day to celebrate farm animals. Our list was created with 4-7 year olds in mind and provides a variety of animals on American farms.
Introduces young readers to animals that can be found on a farm, such as pigs, sheep, horses, and cows, and describes the ways in which they help people.
Follow Ragweed’s handy tips to become the best farm dog ever.
Some families have dogs. Some have cats. Some have fish. Then there are the more daring families who have pet lizards and snakes. But what are the most unusual pets? Leave it to children’s nonfiction authors to expose us to the most bizarre pets one can have. We’ve added one special fiction book just to make the list even more eccentric.
While not covering ‘real’ unusual pets, this picture book takes a hilarious look at weird fake hybrids. Hieronymus Betts is armed with a vast array of bizarre and unsavory pets, from the slimy Slugapotamus to the Sticker bog hog.
Your pet hedgehog just made a spitball. Is that normal? This book introduces readers to the ins and outs of care for a pet hedgehog. Readers will get information to help them decide if a hedgehog is the right pet for them as well as the how-to’s of caring for hedgehogs.
An introduction to an unusual pet- the Macaw. The first part of the book describes the care macaws need and the second part is a rhyming story about a boy who finds a pet macaw. Interesting animal facts and a quiz round out the book.
A combination of text and photographs share information about caring for pet geckos, including information about the different breeds, life cycles, and behaviors.
Highlights the amount of specialized care that sugar gliders require, but also how cute they are which in turn attracts children to this unique animal.
A collection of autobiographical stories about raising a houseful of children and wild pets including crows, skunks, and raccoons. Author George is well-known for her love of all animals.
From where they sleep to what they eat and how you can make them feel safe and at home, this book gives you pet care advice on a variety of different pets. Learn the inside information on how to care for and understand the behavior of pets such as snakes, insects, chinchillas, newts, and salamanders.
Award-winning author Ame Dyckman’s picture books provide plenty of laughter during storytimes and bedtimes. Ame is the award-winning author of Boy + Bot; Tea Party Rules; the New York Times bestselling Wolfie the Bunny; Horrible Bear!; You Don’t Want a Unicorn!; Read the Book, Lemmings!; Misunderstood Shark; Huggy the Python Hugs Too Hard; Roary the Lion Roars Too Loud; Misunderstood Shark: Friends Don’t Eat Friends; the third board book in the Wee Beasties board book series, Touchy the Octopus Touches Everything; and her latest picture book Dandy.
Hi Ame. Three books coming out this spring—WOW! If you were to describe each book with three adjectives, what would those adjectives be?
THANKS, and OOH, FUN game! Okay…
My fiction-with-nonfiction-facts picture book MISUNDERSTOOD SHARK: FRIENDS DON’T EAT FRIENDS (ill. by Scott Magoon, pubbed 1/29/19) is… ZANY, INFORMATIVE, and FUNNY!
My social manners board book TOUCHY THE OCTOPUS TOUCHES EVERYTHING (ill. by Alex G. Griffiths, pubbed 3/19/19) is… KID-TRUE, HELPFUL, and (you guessed it!) FUNNY!
And finally, my family/neighborhood picture book DANDY (ill. by Charles Santoso, pubbed 4/2/19) is HEARTWARMING, SASSY, and HILARIOUS! (There’s just something about GROWN-UPS peer pressuring each other—in this case, the neighbors ordering Daddy Lion to “take care of” the dandelion on his lawn—that’s EXTRA-funny!)
We love that you are so creative with your characters and are wondering what draws you to write about the specific animals you choose?
THANK YOU! I often use animal protagonists because animals can represent EVERYBODY. We’ve all at one time or another been a hungry (or HORRIBLE!) bear, a worried-but-brave bunny, a misbehaving-but-denying-it shark, etc., and I want all readers (especially kids) to be able to see themselves in my characters. But when using human characters, it’s important to represent diversity, so kids can see themselves visually as well as emotionally. I’ve finally written a (not-announced-yet!) human classroom story, and I can’t wait to see all the kiddos!
Read the Book, Lemmings! and Misunderstood Shark have such fun endings. When you begin writing a picture book, do you know what the ending will be?
THANKS, and generally… NOPE! I almost NEVER know the ending of a story when I start writing it. Often, I don’t even start with the BEGINNING of the story! I usually “see” a midway scene or “hear” a bit of character dialogue, and the story grows in both directions from there by questioning—WHAT is happening, WHO is saying it and WHY, etc. (Sometimes my characters completely run the show and I’m just taking dictation! THOSE ARE GREAT WRITING DAYS!)
Misunderstood Shark was unique as we knew it would be the first of at least two Misunderstood Shark books, so I was able to end it on a bit of a “cliff-hanger.” (But my character Bob Jellyfish was mad at me for MONTHS ‘til I finished our sequel (Misunderstood Shark: Friends Don’t Eat Friends) and got him “OUT!” of the… er, PLACE I’d left him!)
You write some of the most humorous books so our readers are wondering what makes you laugh? What’s the funniest joke you have heard?
It’s ridiculous, but the joke that makes me laugh EVERY time:
What do you call cheese that isn’t yours?
NACHO CHEESE!
(Visit me on Taco Tuesday and you’ll hear this joke SEVERAL times! You’ve been warned!)
Several of your books have been translated and are sold all over the world. Can you tell us a little about the process of getting a picture book translated and in the hands of children everywhere?
I’ve been extremely fortunate that ALL of my published picture books have been translated in one-to-multiple languages (Spanish, French, German, Dutch, Hebrew, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, ETC.—even Finnish and Norwegian!) for little readers all over the world. (I treasure each of these translated books—even if I can’t read them! I’m only fluent in English and Five-Year-Old!) Luckily, each of my publisher’s amazing Translation Departments takes care of nearly all my translation work—I usually only chime in when we’re creating other English editions (for sale in the United Kingdom, Australia, etc.) and I’ve used a particularly American English phrase I need to substitute with a more locally-appropriate one. And even then, I have FABULOUS advice from our regional editors.
With so many books written in just a few years, you must never suffer writer’s block. Do you have a writing schedule/routine?
I think EVERYONE gets writer’s block! I wrangle mine by working on several projects at once. If one story stops speaking to me, I just put it aside and work on another ‘til the first one shouts again. And no, I don’t have a writing routine. I write when inspirations (and deadlines!) strike and when I can—while juggling home and family and my new projects pipeline and travel and promotion and one SERIOUSLY attention-demanding cat! But when I am writing, I’m REALLY writing. (Read, “Ame frequently burns dinner when she’s writing!” OOPS!)
If we were to visit and look at your bookshelf, what genre would we find the most represented?
*LAUGHING* Picture books! I own shelves and shelves AND SHELVES of picture books and basically no “grown-up” books. (Unless they’re grown-up books ABOUT picture books! HA!) There’s also a shelf or two of classic MG (Roald Dahl, etc.) and a bit of supernatural/fantasy/contemporary YA for plane trips. But when packing for a car trip, I’ve been known to bring an extra suitcase (or two!) full of picture books!
Visit Ame on Twitter (@AmeDyckman), where she posts book news, goofy poetry, and pretty much everything that pops into her (frequently color-changing) head!
Whether it starts with a pet fish or a trip to the beach, some kids love reading about sea creatures. Our list of 20 picture books featuring sea animals is sure to create even more interest about the many sea dwellers on our planet.
A squid that feels cold begins stealing clothing from other animals until, finally, they fight back, leaving him with two arms longer than the others. Includes facts about squids.
A father relates to his son the tale of his encounter–and friendship–with a gigantic trout whose enormous jaw is covered with so many lures and fish hooks that he jangles when he swims, but who has never been caught.
After making a rare summertime trip from Florida to Cape Cod, Massachusetts, Kobee Manatee needs to get back before winter, but he is willing to help new friends, Pablo, a wonderfully vulnerable hermit crab, and Tess, a compassionate and adventurous seahorse, he meets along the way and together they face several obstacles.
Lorenzo the lobster’s favorite food is pizza, so when his friend Kalena the sea turtle finds one she brings it back for Lorenzo, and once they figure out how to make it, they have a pizza party for all their friends.
Manatee Winter
By: Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld
Illustrated by: Steven Petruccio
A mother manatee and her little calf travel from the Gulf of Mexico through dangerous water full of speeding boats.
Shark interrupts the filming of Underwater World with Bob, scattering the other creatures (and the audience), but he claims it is all a terrible misunderstanding–that he would never think of eating the fish, the squid, the audience…or Bob.
A sea horse leads the reader past coral reefs and underwater creatures to a sea horse family hidden in a cave. Includes notes on coral reefs and various marine animals.
Smiley Shark loves to smile, but everyone is afraid of his big, sharp, toothy grin. Catfish, Sea Star, and Octopus all swim away from Smiley Shark as fast as they can. His teeth are too scary! When all the fish are caught in a net, though, they need Smiley Shark’s help. A big smile is just what is needed to save the day!
A Leo Lionni classic: When his school of fish is attacked by a big tuna, Swimmy goes out on his own and discovers the wonders of the sea, so when he finds a new school, he helps them find a way to venture out and stand up to the bigger fish.
From before the time she hatches until she returns to the same beach to lay eggs of her own, a sea turtle is helped to escape from danger many times by different human hands.
While the young reader is reading about Captain McElligot’s boat, the Cetacean Station, and joining the Cat in the Hat, Thing One and Two and the two children from the Cat’s earliest adventures, he/she is also learning about marine mammals, toothed and baleen whales, the difference between dolphins and porpoises, whale habitat, reproduction, behavior, and so on. The book includes a simple glossary and suggestions for further reading.
There is so much changing in spring. Follow this thematic reading list to find out about nature in spring, from plants to animals, and all the growth that happens during this blooming season.
Answers the following questions: What is spring? Why do we have seasons? When is it spring? Is spring the same everywhere on Earth? What are the first signs of spring? What do animals do in the spring? Why do animals migrate in the spring? Describes outdoor work and play, and includes how to make your own rainbow.
While watching a caterpillar brought to school in a glass jar slowly change into a beautiful butterfly, the class and the reader learn the basics about the mystery of metamorphosis.
After helping her mother weed, water, and chase the rabbits from their garden, a young girl imagines her dream garden complete with jellybean bushes, chocolate rabbits, and tomatoes the size of beach balls.
Simple text reveals the anticipation of a boy who, having planted seeds while everything around is brown, fears that something has gone wrong until, at last, the world turns green.
Follows a family of bluebirds from the completion of a nest at the beginning of spring through the migration of the parents and eight fledglings in autumn.
Describes some of the signs of spring, including changes in light and temperature, plant growth, buds on trees, baby animals, and other differences, and suggests related activities.
Follows seven dandelion seed parachutes which the wind blows into the air and which land in different circumstances as an example of the way in which a common plant regenerates.
