As a writer, I’m especially fascinated by plants and animals that no one loves. My books are intended to get kids excited about science and help them appreciate the wonders of the natural world. Many years of fieldwork, leading children on nature walks, have given me firsthand experience in introducing students to the terrors and joys of nature. I especially enjoy the beauties of the night, from fireflies to coyote howls to star-gazing!
I wrote
Wait Till It Gets Dark: A Kid's Guide to Exploring the Night
I love to get kids excited about the night time and all the adventures that can be had when exploring the outdoors at night. Watching the moon is something kids can do even in a city filled with bright lights. This book focuses on the moon as the seasons go by, with the unique names for each full moon—Strawberry Moon, Cold Moon, Harvest Moon. Moon-gazing is the first step in getting kids to feel comfortable outdoors after the sun goes down.
Once a month a full moon rises in the night sky. But every time, this big bright circle has a different name! Once in a Full Moon tells the stories behind this monthly visitor.
I once was lucky enough to spend a night camping in the desert under a saguaro cactus. These big, human-looking cacti are magnificent, and this book really captures how important they are to the desert and all the animals that live there. Beautiful illustrations really make me remember that night under the stars and how impressive the giant saguaros are. I’ve learned that when kids feel a sense of awe toward nature, that’s the first step in becoming an environmentalist.
As the summer sun sets over the Arizonan desert, wildlife gathers to witness a very special annual event. The night flower is about to bloom. This celebration transforms the quiet desert for just a short few hours into a riot of colour and sound, as mammals and insects congregate from miles away to take part in this miracle of nature. From pollinating fruit bats to howling mice and reptilian monsters, explore the unusual wildlife the desert has to offer in this beautiful rhyming non-fiction picture book.
I admit it, I’m a sucker for glow-in-the-dark books. I still have the glow-in-the-dark stars on the bedroom ceiling from when my own kids were small. This book has gorgeous glow-in-the-dark illustrations (it works best if you happen to have a blacklight bulb) but also has a lot of great information, facts, and thought-provoking questions about the lifestyles of nocturnal wildlife of all shapes and sizes. A fun reading experience for parents as well as kids!
What creatures hide in the darkness under the starry sky? Easy: they are nocturnal animals, and now you can spot them too! Once the lights go out, the fun begins as glow-in-the-dark images appear on highly-illustrated, fact-filled pages. Travel between different habitats, from fields to deserts to mountains and more, as you learn all about different animals and what makes them nocturnal in this beautiful nonfiction picture book.
This book is for slightly older kids who want to delve deeper into the mysteries of the night. I like this book because it includes plants in the survey of what’s going on at night. Plants often get overlooked, but they’re just as active at night as they are during the day—they don’t move around or make noise, but there’s a lot going on inside those quiet leaves. This book also covers humans, how our brain works, why it needs sleep, and does a good job of explaining the complex topic of biological rhythms.
An entertaining, fact-packed introduction to the science of night.
What happens when we go to sleep at night? Kids can find out in this fun exploration of the world after dark. This nonfiction book covers the surprising amount of activity going on at night with animals, plants, celestial objects and even our own bodies! Here are answers to all the questions kids have about nighttime — and many they have never thought of! — including: Why do we dream? How do bats use echolocation? What blooms in the moonlight? Why do stars twinkle?
This book really changed my life—it opened up the night skies and taught me the constellations in a simple kid-friendly way. Lots of fun cartoons make star-gazing surprisingly possible. Once I learned how to identify a few constellations, the night became a much friendlier palace, and instead of being scared of the dark, I began to realize the incredible beauty of the night. H. A. Rey really communicates his passion for star-gazing and makes you want to go out and night and explore the skies. And if the author’s name sounds familiar to you, it’s because he’s the creator of Curious George!
New updates concentrate on the planetary and solar system information in the latter part of the book. Facts and figures for each planet have been revised, and new scientific information has been added, such as Pluto's reclassification as a dwarf planet. There's also a brand new online resource that allows readers to track the positions of the planets in the night sky till the year 2100!
It’s night. It’s dark. It’s time to go indoors—or is it? The outdoors at night can be a scary place, but this book will help young readers investigate the mysterious nature of night.
To explore the night, it would be great to have eyes like an owl, the sensitive nose of a deer, and feet that can move as silently as a fox. Humans aren’t quite as good as nocturnal animals at navigating the darkness, but we can come surprisingly close. Our senses are much sharper than we realize, if we learn how to use them. Some scientists are even researching the sensory abilities of human hair! Each chapter of the book spotlights a different nocturnal creature. And while learning about animals’ adaptations for navigating the world of night, young readers discover their own surprising abilities.
I have been to, and loved, North, Central, and especially East Africa for over fifty years. Only six times have I been to Africa on holiday; more often, perhaps twenty or more times, as a television producer. Working in Africa gains a perspective of reality that the glories of vacation do not. Each has its place, each its pitfalls like stalled plane rides with emergency landings in the bush or attacks by wildlife. But, in the end, the magic of the “otherness,” what an old friend called “primitava” captures one’s soul and changes your life.
Keen to rekindle their love of East African wildlife adventures after years of filming, extreme dangers, and rescues, producer Pero Baltazar, safari guide Mbuno Waliangulu, and Nancy Breiton, camerawoman, undertake a filming walking adventure north of Lake Rudolf, crossing from Kenya into Ethiopia along the Omo River, following a herd of elephant making their annual migration.
Stumbling onto an elephant poaching, the team become embroiled in true financing of terrorism for al Shabaab –ivory sales–and are determined to stop the slaughter at any cost. Ivory trade financing terrorism involves UN refugee camps with two hundred thousand displaced Somali persons, powerful…
A documentary team hiking through East Africa collides with a gang of deadly poachers, in this gripping adventure by the author of Kidnapped on Safari.
Years of filming, extreme dangers, and daring rescues have taken their toll on documentary producer Pero Baltazar and his team. To relax and reconnect with the East African wildlife they love, Pero organizes a walking safari for him, his camerawoman Nancy Breiton, and their elite guide Mbuno Waliangulu. Still, Pero has trouble truly disconnecting from work. When the team comes across a herd of elephants making their annual migration north of Lake Rudolf, Pero decides…
