cover image 30 Animals That Share Our World

30 Animals That Share Our World

Edited by Jean Reynolds. Seagrass, $14.95 (144p) ISBN 978-1-63322-500-8

Reynolds, who edits the blog The Nonfiction Minute, offers a digestible collection of 30 animal-themed essays by children’s book writers. The works focus on famous animals, such as White House pets throughout history and Seaman, the Newfoundland dog from the Lewis and Clark expedition. Other essays center on animals for which the authors have particular reverence or fear. Trish Marx writes about her terror of the wolf spiders she would find in webs as a child; she then recounts an incident in which wolf spiders in Australia were flooded out of their burrows: “If this damage in Wagga Wagga was caused by climate change, imagine the invasions and changes that may yet come.” Elsewhere, Dorothy Hinshaw Patent shares the captivating story of the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone National Park. Photographs accompany each short piece, along with a stylized illustration of each subject. The brief essays introduce many ideas and concepts; readers eager to learn more can do so through lists of suggested resources. Ages 8–12. (May)