Text copyright © 2018 by Katherine Gardner. Illustrations copyright © 2018 by Heidi Smith. Images reproduced with permission of the publisher, Balzer + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

Lovely Beasts: The Surprising Truth

By Kate Gardner; illustrated by Heidi Smith (Balzer + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers)

Learn more about awe-inspiring animals in the wild: it’s best not to judge a beast until you understand its full, lovely life.

Themes:

Animals, Elementary

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Lovely Beasts will get students thinking about the wonder of biodiversity and how animals, like anything else, can be misunderstood. What do students know and what can they learn about the wildlife in their own community? To help students more fully understand the beauty, uniqueness, and value of local wildlife, take them on a walking field trip to a park or plan a visit to a nearby natural area to observe and identify local birds, animals, and insects. Get students working to help change perceptions of wild creatures in their community by:

inviting a local naturalist or park ranger to read aloud about the amazing adaptations of local wildlife and generate ideas to break stereotypes with students
creating masks that show the different sides of animals and performing Lovely Beasts as Reader’s Theater
writing and sharing their own version of Lovely Beasts featuring animals in your community.