Small WondersSmall Wonders

The lively text of Small Wonders takes readers on an amazing journey across Canada to see baby animals in their natural homes. Young readers will travel from mountains to prairie grasslands, up to the Far North, into coastal waters, even to their backyards to see animal families play, communicate, feed, and learn. Meet 14 favorite Canadian animals including a moose and calf, Canada goose and goslings, loon and chicks, beaver and kits, and more. With each animal, one text block situates the reader in a new environment and introduces the baby animal in the scene. Then, on each page, we also hear from the baby animal itself, as the moose calf tells us how it will grow huge antlers, for instance, or the wolf pup how it will learn to howl. Marilyn Baillie's lyrical text is a wonderful meld of non-fiction fact and story-telling rhythm. A perfect read-aloud at bedtime, this is also a book that is an engaging non-fiction introduction to the natural world. A page at the back of the book goes into more depth on aspects of each animal -- such as how orcas communicate or how mountain sheep can nimbly climb steep mountainsides.