Animals Hibernating: How Animals Survive Extreme Conditions

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

Why is maple syrup like frog blood? Why do lemmings climb the mountains?
Which animal migrates every year from the Arctic to the Antarctic and
then back again? These are just a few of the fascinating things young
readers will learn from these final additions to the Animal Behaviour
series.

In Animals Hibernating’s four chapters—“See You in the Spring,”
“Getting Ready,” “The Inside Story,” and “Rise and Shine and
Other Extreme Sleepers”—science writer Pamela Hickman does a
first-rate job of describing how animals get ready for a long winter’s
sleep. She also explains how some animals store up fat in their bodies
while others store food in their sleeping quarters, and shows the
different kinds of nests used by different animals.

Animals Migrating contains five chapters: “Mammals,” “Birds,”
“Insects” “Sea Life,” and “Reptiles and Amphibians.” Etta
Kaner not only describes the different ways animals migrate but she also
includes science projects that readers can try at home or at school. For
example, in the chapter “Mammals,” Kaner shows how blubber keeps a
grey whale warm during migration by having the reader insert a
thermometer into cold water—once by itself and once while wrapped in
vegetable shortening.

Both books contain boldly coloured beautiful illustrations by veteran
nature illustrator Pat Stephens, and both are highly recommended.