City of Leafcutter ants: A Sustainable Society of Millions by Amy Hevron (Neal Porter Books, 40 pages, ages 4-8). Enter the fascinating world of leafcutter ants, a rainforest community of eight million that produces their own food, uses antibiotics to prevent diseases, manages their trash, and builds and defends their city. Each job is described with a sentence or two of text and collage illustrations that show the different ants at work. There’s a surprising amount of action, including an amazing defense against an invading poison dart frog (don’t worry, everyone’s okay). The back matter provides a lot more information along with a list of additional resources. This is an excellent science book that would be perfect to share with preschool and early elementary kids, although the boys may be bummed by the limited role of the male drones in this largely female society.

A Terrible Place for a Nest by Sara Levine, illustrated by Erika Meza (Roaring Brook Press, 40 pages, ages 4-8). “When Juno and his mom lost their home, they had to move to a new place.” Juno is sure the new place will never feel like home. He and his mom notice he mourning doves that live outside of their new building. When Juno sees two of the birds making a nest on the fence, he tells them it’s a terrible place for a nest. Sure enough, a deliveryman accidentally knocks it down, breaking the eggs inside. Juno tries to rebuild the nest, doing some research to learn more about mourning doves, but the birds stay away. Meanwhile, the illustrations show him making a new friend and settling into his home. By the time a pair of doves settles into the nest, Juno and his friend are ready, with signs warning people to watch out for the nest. “I told them it wasn’t a great place for a nest,” Juno says, “But we made it work.” This sweet picture book will reassure kids who have to move to a new home, with its parallel story about the doves and Juno and his mom. Kids will find plenty to look at in the illustrations, which tell more of Juno’s story than the text does. A little back matter about mourning doves would have been a nice addition.

Clever Crow by Chris Butterworth, illustrated by Olivia Lomenech Gill (Candlewick, 32 pages, ages 4-8). “Wherever you are right now, there’s sure to be a crow or two nearby.” Crows are easy to spot, but also easy to miss. They tend to be plain, not particularly fancy fliers, and have a hoarse caw instead of a melodious song. But they’re smart enough to use tools and store food, and sometimes you can see them acting playfully. To summarize, they are “smart, clever, crafty and playful…just like you!” Includes a list of suggestions for learning more about crows and a short index.

The illustrations in this book are stunning, beginning with the endpapers, which show various crow eggs in the front and the birds that hatch out of them in the back. The text is quirky but interesting, although it left me wanting to know a lot more…for instance, is a crow a specific bird or a family of birds? I was surprised by the inclusion of a blue jay on the back endpapers, since I don’t think of it as a crow, but a quick Google search revealed that it’s part of the crow family. This is an eye-catching introduction, but curious readers will want to dig deeper for more information.

Sleepy: Surprising Ways Animals Snooze by Jennifer Ward, illustrated by Robin Page (Beach Lane Books, 32 pages, grades K-3). Whether it’s the half-sleeping brain of the dolphin, the deep torpor of the hummingbird, or the eyes-wide-open slumber of a snake, animals get their rest in a variety of fascinating ways. Each page features a close-up illustration of the animal with four lines of rhyming text describing its sleep, with a paragraph of additional information giving more details. The last page features a human child experiencing what scientists call “monophasic sleep.” Includes a list of the types of sleep in the book, a list of sources, and pie charts showing sleeping and waking times for all 16 animals and five more showing humans at different developmental stages.

As much as I mourn the loss of Steve Jenkins, his talented wife Robin Page has found an able partner with Jennifer Ward, whose rhyming text and fascinating facts reminded me of many a Jenkins book. The pie charts were very similar to some in his Animals by the Numbers (and the fact that I know that is a testament to how many times I’ve shared that book with classes.) The rhyming text and pictures will appeal to younger readers, and older ones will enjoy the additional information about each animal.

Animal Superpowers by Amy Cherrix, illustrated by Frann Preston-Gannon (Beach Lane Books, 48 pages, grades K-4). From a seemingly immortal jellyfish to a gravity-defying ibex to a snake-killing, venom-resistant opossum, these animals have superpowers that allow them to survive and thrive in their environments. Even your pet dog has a smelling superpower! Each two-page spread has a vivid illustration with boxed text. One spread gives the introduction to the power, then turn the page to reveal what it is and how the animal uses it. The last couple pages, entitled “Action is your superpower!”, tells how the different animals are threatened by pollution and climate change, encouraging kids to take action to help them. There’s also a list of sources.

Wolf Effect: A Wilderness Revival Story by Rosanne Parry, illustrated by Jennifer Thermes (Greenwillow Books, 40 pages, grades K-4). The story of wolves in Yellowstone, from their disappearance due to hunting to their reintroduction in the 1990’s, is told with rhyming text, prose, and illustrations. The wolves’ demise is told in verses, showing farmers and rangers hunting the wolves, with newspaper headlines declaring that Yellowstone is free of them. Then the text goes into a sort of “house that Jack built” rhyme, showing the ripple effects of reintroducing the wolves on the environment, as beavers, willows, and songbirds all return to the park. Boxes of narrative text provide more details, as do the illustrations, which sometimes depict a bear and a coyote discussing the effects of the wolves’ return. Eighteen animals from the pages are shown at the end; there are also notes from the author and illustrator, as well as a glossary and a list of resources.

Animal fans will be happy to see both of these books on the library shelves, with their eye-catching covers and beautiful illustrations. Animal Superpowers will appeal to readers who like collecting interesting facts while Wolf Effect is more of a story. I found the way the latter book was written a bit confusing, and I’m not sure that rhyming verses were the best way to go, particularly from an author as knowledgeable about wolves as Rosanne Parry (A Wolf Called Wander is one of my all-time favorite animal stories). Jennifer Thermes is amazing, though, and I found the illustrations to be the main attraction of both books.

Water: Discovering the Precious Resource All Around Us by Olga Fadeeva, translated from Russian by Lena Traer (Eerdman’s Books for Young Readers, 56 pages, grades 2-5). Each spread in this book asks a question about water, covering a wide range of topics from weather to oceans to pollution. How much water is there on Earth? How do rivers form? How are seas and oceans different? How powerful is water? Each question is answered with a few straightforward, engaging paragraphs and illustrated with acrylics that emphasize the blues and browns of water. This is a fun book to browse and would make an excellent addition to any elementary unit on water, although there was a sad lack of additional resources at the end.

Dive! The Story of Breathing Underwater by Chris Gall (Roaring Brook Press, 48 pages, grades 1-5). As we learned in the first book, two-thirds of the Earth is covered in water, so it’s only natural that humans would seek out ways to explore the oceans. Beginning with the ancient Greeks who used hollow reeds that allowed them to breathe while harvesting undersea sponges, Chris Gall moves on to diving bells, the bathysphere, the Aqua-Lung, and robot-controlled submersibles. He also explains what happens when humans travel deep into the ocean, and the catastrophic effects returning to the surface too quickly can have. The narrative is told through a lens of problem-solving, as various inventors sought to overcome obstacles to allow divers to go deeper and explore longer. There’s more information at the end about the oceans, how to become a diver, and the author’s personal experience with diving, as well as a glossary and additional resources. Although this has the look of a picture book and is recommended by some reviewers for kids as young as 4, there’s a lot of somewhat technical information that would most likely be more interesting for older readers.