5KN: Expository Literature

Some animal features are easy to see—long tails, large wings, patterned fur, or sharp beaks. But look closer—you might be surprised by what you find! A penguin’s sharp beak hides a textured… Read More →

See what the buzz is about in this fresh, fun look at insect anatomy. Let's build an insect! In the pages of this book, you’ll find a workshop filled with everything you need, including a… Read More →

Pancake ice, floebergs, glaciers, icicles . . . cold temperatures create an astonishing variety of ice forms! From Maria Gianferrari, award-winning author of Play Like an Animal!, comes a… Read More →

Water, air, sunlight, plants . . . we need these elements to live in this world. But does the world need us? And what would happen to the world if humans were gone? This is the premise of a… Read More →

What would you do if you were the moon? Do you think you would rest quietly in the night sky? Oh, no. The moon does so much more than you might imagine! It spins like a twilight ballerina,… Read More →

Can you find pancakes and pizza crusts in the ocean? The answer might surprise you! Sea creatures can be all different shapes, sizes, and colors. And sometimes they might just look like one… Read More →

"Exceptionally handsome photographs light up the pages of this well-designed introduction to jellyfish. A few sentences or fragments, closely tied to the illustrations, appear on each spread. Read More →

We think this much is true . . . Once upon a time, before time even existed, all matter in the universe was concentrated on a single point a fraction of the size of an atom. And then? And… Read More →

Nature’s creatures can be ferocious! Lions and sharks leave many animals running scared. But some predators may be hunting beneath your feet or above your head—and you don’t know they’re… Read More →

Bizarre creatures are floating around in our oceans—squishy, slimy, spiky-headed monsters. And they're not even grown up yet! These kids have to go through some drastic changes before they… Read More →

Life on Earth has existed for 3.5 billion years. In that time, 99.9 percent of the species that have ever lived have gone extinct. But a few have survived almost completely unchanged . . .… Read More →

Around the world, busy roads and highways block animal paths. What can we do to keep animals safe and allow them to go where they need to go? We can build wildlife crossings! Take a world… Read More →

An ant hurries over the rocky ground. It pauses beside a dark pebble to clean a bit of dust off its antenna. Unfortunately for the ant, this is the last thing it will ever do. Because what… Read More →

Late one night, ecologist Jonathan Martin was searching for tree frogs in his Wisconsin backyard when he made an unexpected discovery. As he shined an ultraviolet flashlight in the direction… Read More →

Glaciers, rivers, wind, and rain are a few of the elements that shape the landscape in powerful ways. They form features big and small—from grand canyons and enormous caves to smooth pebbles Read More →

Ninja were skilled warriors in medieval Japan. And now you can find ninja in comics, movies, and TV shows. But what about in nature? Real animals aren't anything like ninja . . . are they? A Read More →

Some rules are meant to be broken, even those in the animal kingdom! You're probably familiar with many of the common categories scientists use for animals: warm-blooded or cold-blooded,… Read More →

Night becomes day / Flower becomes fruit. Nature is always at work, transforming. Whether sudden or gradual, change is a constant in our world. Author Cynthia Argentine describes transitions Read More →

As day slowly grows dark, stars appear, night bugs blink on, and animals begin to emerge. Bats flap, skunks prowl, and rabbits race. From their backyard tent, a mother and child marvel at… Read More →

Shirley Chisholm was a natural-born fighter. She didn’t like to be bossed and she wanted things to be fair. Brooklyn-born Shirley Chisholm was smart and ambitious. She poured her energy into… Read More →

What do a thorn bug, an aye-aye, and a narwhal have in common? Their looks make them Odd Bods. Long snouts, bright-red lips, pointy heads . . . the animal kingdom is full of critters with… Read More →

On a feather-fluffing, seed-stuffing, cloud-puffing day . . . Weasels whiten. / Cardinals brighten. / Frost glistens. / Owl listens. From Buffy Silverman, author of On a Gold-Blooming Day and Read More →

On a gold-blooming, bee-zooming, sun-dazzling day . . . / Snakes glide. / Spiders hide. / Crickets chirp. / Butterflies slurp. From Buffy Silverman, author of On a Snow-Melting Day, comes an… Read More →