Animals

Gerald the giraffe longs to dance, but his legs are too skinny and his neck is too long. His knees buckle whenever he tries to twirl. At the Jungle Dance, the warthogs waltz, the chimps cha-cha, and the lions tango. “Giraffes can’t dance,” they all jeer when it’s Gerald’s turn to prance. But there is one little creature who believes in Gerald. “Everything makes music,” the cricket explains, “if you really want it to.” So Gerald starts swaying to his own sweet tune. With light-footed rhymes and high-stepping illustrations, this tale is gentle inspiration for every child with dreams of greatness.

A young girl and her mother learn about the life cycle of frogs, as they grow from eggs to tadpoles to full-fledged adults. This “frog-growing adventure” has sunny pictures and simple text with just enough detail to help you start your own frog farm!

My name is Bumblebee Bat. I may be small, but I’m a great flyer. I live in a secret cave with my brothers and sisters. Want to know more? Then open this book and fly with Bumblebee Bat into the night. A series of questions and answers introduce children to the life and habitat of the exotic and endangered Bumblebee Bat. Scientifcally accurate illustration make these exotic animals accessible to young readers. Back matter includes additional child-friendly facts.

Newbery-winning author Jean Craighead George demonstrates how to communicate with finicky felines. “Among cats, ‘Hello’ is rubbing heads,” writes George who has authored more than 80 books on animals and nature. If students feel more connected to canines, try George’s How to Talk to Your Dog (HarperCollins, 2000).

Best friends, Turtle and Spottie spend all their time together. They go to the gym, plant a garden, and enjoy scary movies. But they don’t always think alike, so compromise is the solution. Divided into chapters, this storybook can be read aloud at one time or over several occasions.

Twenty-one insects take center stage in this collection of poems and paintings. After reading a few poems aloud, turn children loose to pore over the detailed pictures and read more poems on their own. Each poem celebrates the distinctive features of its subject, from the lengthy limbs of “O Daddy/Daddy O” Long Legs to the “pure evil” of a boll weevil.

Island of the Blue Dolphins is the remarkable story of a strange and beautiful Indian girl who lives a serene and courageous life as the solitary survivor on a rocky island off the California coast. The island looks like a big fish sunning itself in the sea. Around it, blue dolphins swim, otters frolic in the surf, and sea elephants and birds abound. Once, many Indians lived on the island, too. But when the Russian arrived to prey on the wildlife surrounding the island, a war broke out, and many perished. The few that were left fled the island and sailed to the island of Santa Catalina in the east, but Karana, The Girl wih the Long Black Hair, and Ramo, her brother, were left behind.

When Knut was born, the first polar bear cub at the Berlin Zoo in more than thirty years, he was no bigger than a snowball and unable to care for himself. His mother, a rescued East German circus bear, didn’t know how to take care of Knut and rejected him. Knut would have died if it weren’t for Thomas Dorflein, a zookeeper who nurtured Knut, feeding him, sleeping with him, and giving him the love and attention Knut needed to thrive. But Thomas wasn’t the only one who adopted Knut. The adorable little polar bear captured the world’s attention, and now Knut is loved around the globe.