Showing titles in Nonfiction

Have you ever heard of an invertebrate that spends its whole life inside another animal? What about a beetle that spends most of its life underground? Young listeners will learn all about lancet flukes, Hercules beetles, and other invertebrates with unusual life cycles.

Flitter and flutter! It’s a pretty butterfly! Young listeners will get the fast facts on these colorful insects, including butterfly body parts, habitats, life cycles, and why they are important to the environment.

Smelly trash, rotting food, and piles of poop are disgusting! But not to flies! Why? You have questions, and this book has the answers. Find out all about flies, including their body parts, young, food, and behavior.

Zip! Something darts through the air. It’s a dragonfly! Young listeners will get the fast facts on these speedy insects, including their body parts, habitats, and life cycles. Along the way, they also will uncover surprising and fascinating facts!

Skitter, skitter! A cockroach scurries by in a flash. Young listeners will get the fast facts on these tough insects, including cockroach body parts, habitats, and life cycles. Along the way, they will also uncover surprising and fascinating facts!

Hi, there! I'm a monarch butterfly. You’ve probably seen me fluttering around, but have you ever stopped to think about where I came from? Learn more about my life cycle and how I went from a tiny little caterpillar to a beautiful butterfly.

Get ready to laugh from the ant farm to the beehive with these silly bug jokes! Laugh-out-loud jokes to keep young listeners engaged.

Do you spy a silky web? A spider must be nearby! Young listeners will get the fast facts on these eight-legged critters, including spider body parts, habitats, and life cycles. Along the way, they will also uncover surprising and fascinating facts!

Dung beetles are the world’s strongest animals. They are famous for rolling animal poop around. Their gross job is important to the world. Find out more facts about these strong insects.

Tarantulas use strong jaws to catch their prey, but these big spiders aren't as dangerous as some people think! Some can even be pets! Get caught up in all the details about these hairy, silk-spinning creatures.

Jumping spiders aren’t like other spiders. They don’t need spider webs to trap prey. They just jump on them!

Did you know food scraps you throw away help plants and vegetables grow? Scavengers, animals who eat our food scraps, and decomposers: bacteria, fungi, and insects break the food down into soil. They eat some and put the rest into the soil we use for planting and gardening. Can you guess which animals and bugs make the best decomposers? What are scientists learning about decomposers?

What is juicy, red and green with white stripes and pops up from the ground ready to eat—watermelon! Their seeds need plenty of water, lots of sun and nutrient rich soil. Follow along as a tiny, black seed bursts into a delicious fruit. Watermelons are ready to be picked when their yellow petals have all fallen. Find out what Bee-u-ti-ful insect helps the watermelon grow?

Did you know that a woolly bear is a type of caterpillar? People have sometimes used these caterpillars to predict the weather by looking at their stripes! Learn about these interesting creatures and what their life is like before they make cocoons and morph into their final form—the yellow tiger moth!

When a young boy visits his friend, Mary, he finds out it’s honey harvest day! Even though Mary’s family lives in the big city of Chicago, they have honeybees in their backyard. Follow along to learn about beekeeping and lots of cool stuff about the honeybee!

Two ants have lost their queen’s pink sprinkle! Now they must go on an adventure to find their queen’s sugary snack. They need to ask all the other creatures that live around them if they have seen it! Will they ever be able to find the sprinkle?

Have you ever wondered how insects defend themselves from predators? Some, like the stick insect and katydid, use amazing disguises to help blend into their surroundings! Others, like wasps, hornets, and some caterpillars, use a painful venom to discourage attackers. If you were a bug, what sort of defense would you use?

Have you ever heard of a bug hotel? There are some insects that help plants by spreading pollen and improving the soil, but they don’t always show up in every garden. To help encourage them to move in, some gardeners build little houses for them!

When a young boy happens across a tarantula, it scares him at first! But then he and the tarantula have a conversation, and he learns about the differences between insects and spiders—like the spider’s unique body, which is comprised of a combined head/thorax, abdomen, and palps—as well as some interesting facts about other arachnids!

Yo and Jennifer are having a cookie picnic when some uninvited guests show up – ants! Yo and Jennifer learn more about their new ant friends, like what they eat and where they live.