Cute Chameleons!

Behold the Chameleon 

by Suzanne Slade; illus by Thomas Gonzalez

40 pages; ages 4-8

Peachtree, 2025

theme: animals, nature, nonfiction

Amazing chameleon! Four sturdy legs creep and crawl through lush, tall trees…

Many people know chameleons as a lizard that can change color. But did you know that they can move their eyes independently? That means a chameleon can keep one eye on its prey swiveling the other eye to keep a look-out for predators. Pretty nifty! Plus, there are more than 220 different species ranging in size from as small as your thumbnail to as big as a housecat. And then there’s that super-speedy sticky tongue that can zap prey faster than you can take two giant steps.

What I like about this book: Spare lyrical language is paired with layered text providing alternate ways to read this book. Large text focuses on different aspects of chameleons, from their activities (stalking, dining) to attributes (victorious, meticulous) and allows for read-aloud opportunities. Text in smaller font provides more information about each chameleon characteristic and is perfect for older kids or as a fast fact to toss out in a discussion. Back matter provides further considerations of chameleons, and a short bibliography points the way for curious kids (and adults) who might want to read more about some of the studies.

Beyond the Book:

Craft a Color-Changing chameleon – all you need are paper plates, paint, a brass fastener, and a chameleon stencil. Check out this video from PBS for how to do it.

Make a paper chameleon with a blow-out tongue. You’ll need some colored paper and a straw and a couple more easy-to-find things. Here’s a video showing how to do it.

Create some counting and math games for a paper chameleon. Draw and color a chameleon, and tape it to a plastic cup or other container. Then use small pom-poms for flies. You can have kids use a clothespin or tweezers to “feed” flies to the chameleon by dropping them in his cup. You can count flies – or roll a die to determine how many flies to feed the chameleon. Here’s a resource for those games.

Today we’re joining Perfect Picture Book Friday. It’s a wonderful gathering where bloggers share great picture books at Susanna Leonard Hill's website. Review copies provided by the publishers.

Explore Outdoors ~ how snow sticks

 

Walking through the woods on a snowy afternoon I noticed the differences in how snow stuck to things. Tree trunks, for example. 

 

Some trees had thick scaly bark, and falling snow accumulated in the crevices around them. Trees with smoother bark had hardly any. But, given the wind, some had stuck to the tree trunks anyway.

 

 Winter weeds, on the other hand, ended up with Snow Hats!

 

Next Time it Snows: take a walk around your neighborhood and notice where the snow ends up on trees and plants. 

 

Further observation: does where and how snow sticks to trees and winter weeds vary with the water content of the snow? Powdery snow forms in cold, dry air so it doesn't have much moisture. Flakes that form when the temperature is near freezing will have more moisture. That makes them stickier - great for making snowballs - but also heavier.

What Animals Leave Behind...

Scat, poop, dung … whatever you call it, tells a story: about the animal, about its environment, and possibly about the future. These three books look at the things wild animals leave behind, each in its own way. Their themes: animals, poop, nutrient cycle, observation

Scat: The Incredible Science of Wildlife Poop (Books for a Better Earth) 

by Anita Sanchez 

96 pages; ages 8-12

‎Holiday House, 2025

Poop, writes Anita Sanchez, is full of surprises. “It can be food. It can be shelter. It can be life…” Poop carries seeds, helps fertilize soil and oceans, and even carries messages to friends and family. Eight chapters discuss what poop is, how it connects the lives of plants and animals, the kinds of information scientists can gather from studying scat, and why some animals eat their own. 

There are a whole bunch of things I love about this book. First is the sly humor Anita injects into the topic. Take section headings for example: “Thinking like an avocado” or “Does a Bear poop in the forest?” Inquiring minds want to know! There are some truly great photos of animals taking dumps in the wild. For folks who want more, there are sidebars, titled “Scat Science” that dive into such topics as why wildlife poop doesn’t smell bad, dino doo, and moths that look like bird droppings. What’s really fun is the Field Guide to Scat at the end of the book, with photos of droppings from insects, birds, and mammals.

Ready, Steady, Sloth! 

by Justin Anderson; illustrated by Manu Montoya 

32 pages; ages 5-8

‎Candlewick, 2025

High up in the forest canopy, hidden among the leaves, there is a sloth. 

Mama sloth doesn’t move much, but today she needs to go down the tree for a special mission. And she’s taking her baby with her. Down, down, down they go. Oh dear… mama sloth is going so slowly you’re going to wonder whether she’ll make it. This journey is important because sloth has to “go” and the only place she can do that is down on the ground.

What I like about this book: Layered text allows younger readers (or read-alouds) to focus on the story of mama and baby sloth’s adventure down the tree, while introducing some of the other forest creatures – including jaguar! Will he find them? Smaller text provides sloth facts (did you know sloths can’t fart?) and back matter introduces all five three-fingered sloth species and the two two-fingered sloths.

For another book on the topic, check out Kyle Goes Alone 

The Secret of Poo Mountain: Book 4 (Whose Poo Is This?) 

by Song-eui Park; illus. by Duck-Young Kim 

88 pages; ages 7-11

‎Lerner/ Graphic Universe   ‎ March 3, 2026

There are as many ways to write about poo as there are kinds. This book is fourth in an educational comic series that takes readers on a journey to learn about the ecology of animals and the sorts of information that can be derived from the study of poo. Previous books have taken Dr. Egg’s team to the desert and on a boat. In this book, they climb a steep mountain. The three Korean scientists who make up the team learn such things as what an animal eats and where it lives by studying the scat left behind.

What I like about this book: Like other books in the series, this one is structured like a scavenger hunt, with each chapter revealing a new clue. That mystery, and the graphic format help make it appealing to readers who might not want to spend time with a field guide.

Beyond the Books: 

Check out this video, Whose Scat is That? Created by the folks at the Saint Louis Zoo.

Write a list of as many words you can think of (or find) that refer to “poo.”  Don’t forget about dinosaurs…

Create your own story or comic about animals doing something in the wild: making breakfast, going to sleep, combing their fur...

You can find an online “field guide to scat” here. Remember: if you head out on a scat-hunt, look but don’t touch!

https://a-z-animals.com/articles/a-field-guide-to-identifying-wild-animal-scat-in-north-america/

Today we’re sharing Ready, Steady, Sloth! with Perfect Picture Book Friday. It’s a wonderful gathering where bloggers share great picture books at Susanna Leonard Hill's website. 

Thanks for dropping by today. On Monday we'll be sharing Scat over at at Marvelous Middle Grade Monday, a hangout for MG book bloggers. It's over at Greg Pattridge's blog, Always in the Middle, so hop over to see what other people are reading. 

This week’s review copies were provided by the publishers.

Explore Outdoors ~ Lichens!

 Lichens are small and easy to overlook, but they are amazing. These tiny symbiotic communities of fungi and algae and cyanobacteria can weather the cold temperatures and dry air of winter. How do they do it?

 

 

 

They go dormant. Some have anti-freeze chemicals in their cells to keep from - well, freezing and bursting open. Their superpower: they can pick up with photosynthesis once the weather warms up and the moisture returns. Find out more about lichens here. 

 

Go Lichen Looking around your neighborhood. 

Check tree trunks and branches, rocks, stone walls - I've even found lichens growing on park benches! 

 

Exploring the Earth and Beyond

I have SO many books to share that I need to start talking about more than one at a time!

themes: nonfiction, scientists, ecology

Rock Star: How Ursula Marvin Mapped Moon Rocks and Meteorites 

by Sandra Neil Wallace; illus. by Nancy Carpenter 

48 pages; ages 5-9

‎Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books. 2025

Ursula grew up in a small Vermont village with big mountains to explore. They wrapped around her house like a crescent moon.

During the winter, Ursula loved skiing by moonlight. In the summer, she helped collect potato beetles with her father, the state’s entomologist. But Ursula wanted to be an explorer, not a scientist. Until… she looked at a rock under a microscope.

Despite being discouraged by professors, Ursula went on to study geology. She got so good at recognizing minerals, that she became one of the first geologists to study the rocks the Apollo astronauts brought back from the moon. She studied bits of meteorites, too – an interest that led her to Antarctica.

What I like about this book: It’s a polar adventure and a story of discovery of a bit of the moon that landed on earth. Lots of kids dream of being an explorer – so reading about a real expedition to Antarctica to look for meteorites might be the perfect story. Back matter includes more about Ursula, facts about Antarctica, and a timeline of Ursula’s life and discoveries. I especially like that the author, Sandra, talks about the research she did to bring this story to the page.

The Big Empty: A Sagebrush Survival Story 

by Kirbi Fagan 

32 pages; ages 5-10

‎Millbrook Press, 2025

People passing by call this land the big empty. But I call it home. 

In spare and poetic text, accompanied by lush paintings, Kirbi Fagan reveals the secrets of the shrubby desert.

What I like about this book: I grew up in the land of sagebrush and never thought about the desert from the sagebrush’s point of view. But that’s exactly what this book does. Back matter explains more about the sagebrush (there’s more than one kind!) and highlights a handful of animals inhabiting the western shrublands. This book might make you want to pack a tent and a few gallons of water and head out to sleep with the sage. Where, if you are lucky, you may see meteorites streak across the sky at night.

Beyond the Books:

Meet two scientists who work with moon rocks at NASA’s Johnson Space Center.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcvqhhCYzAo

Explore like a scientist. If you like rocks, use a magnifying lens to look closely at a rock in your environment. If you like plants, take a close look at a shrub or (if you’re lucky and have one) sagebrush. Draw pictures of what you see and make a list of words that describe what you’re looking at..

Tell a story about a place from the point of view of something found in that environment: a rock or mountain, a plant or animal… or even something falling from the sky and landing there.

Today we’re joining Perfect Picture Book Friday. It’s a wonderful gathering where bloggers share great picture books at Susanna Leonard Hill's website. Review copies provided by the publishers and Blue Slip media (Rock Star)

Explore Outdoors ~leaving seeds for the birds

 I love my garden - but let's face it: I am a lazy gardener. I let my flowers go to seed and leave them all winter. One reason is that some of the seeds will germinate and grow into beautiful blooms next summer.

 

So who nibbles the seeds of my purple coneflowers and bee balm? Blue jays do. So do cardinals, goldfinches, chickadees, nuthatches, titmice, juncos and sparrows. These are the same birds that show up at my feeder ... but on those days I'm slow to refill the feeder, I'm happy there are plenty of seeds out in the garden for them.

 Birds, and other wildlife, glean seeds from grasses and other plants as well. 

 

You can find out more at this article, "Native Plants Provide Winter Food Sources for Birds" here.

 

This week, look for birds visiting seedy heads of flowers and grasses in your neighborhood.

 

Who do you see?