Do You Know Where the Animals Live? Discovering the Incredible Creatures All Around Us

Author Peter Wohlleben is a German forester and TV and movie presenter who shares his knowledge of trees, forests management, ecological practices, and animals in his books written for adults. Wohlleben is best known for his New York Times Best Seller, The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate (2016), published in partnership with the David Suzuki Foundation. A follow-up version for children, Can You Hear the Trees Talking? was released in 2019, as well as a picture book entitled Peter and the Tree Children in 2020.

Do You Know Where the Animals Live? is Wohlleben’s third children’s book and was originally published in German as Weisst du, wo die Tiere wohenen in 2019. This English version was translated by Shelley Tanaka, a prolific Canadian nonfiction editor, author, and winner of numerous children’s literary awards.

While the title suggests that this nonfiction book is about animal homes, it actually presents many more answers to a wide variety of questions that the curious child might have about animals, with wondering about their homes being the first of these. A heading on the back jacket reads: “What’s It Like to be an Animal?” which is a great description of the contents of this book and could well have served as the title.

This nonfiction book is some 80 pages long, and its table of contents is divided into seven different sections:

1. Where do animals live

2. What animals eat

3. All about animal babies

4. How animals grow up

5. Animal survival techniques

6. Animal language

7. Animal emotion

Each chapter is prefaced with its title, a large engaging photograph of an animal, and an introductory paragraph summarizing the chapter’s contents. Each of these seven chapters also contains four sub-questions which investigate different aspects of the topic. Each sub-question treatment includes five to seven paragraphs of text and three to four related and captioned photographs of animals from around the globe. Since this review was based on the black and white advance reader’s version, the quality of colour photographs and use of colour throughout are not known.

The information in each chapter is well-supported with additional elements designed to capture and extend the reader’s interest:

“Look!” – These sidebars share a photograph with accompanying text explaining a special adaptation or fact about the particular creature.

“Try This!” – These sidebars explain activities that children might try themselves in order to learn more about animal life. Very minimal materials are required - such as using a glass jar to look closely at a creek bottom or beating sticks on the ground to convince earthworms that it is raining.

“Quiz!” – A short quiz question with multiple choice answers is contained within a chick-shaped image. The quiz feature is usually found on the bottom right-hand side of the page with the correct answer adjacent in inverted form.

Wohlleben prefaces his book with a short account of his own intense interest in the natural world that began when he was a youngster growing up in Germany. He invites his readers, whether they live in the city or country, to join him to “discover the world of animals together!” The writing is very informal in its approach with the use of first-person narrative and the inclusion of contractions. The author regularly hosts nature workshops for students in Germany, with this book’s intent being to share such investigations with others, and so this informal approach sets a welcoming tone.

The book hits the mark as a fun-filled general interest title. There are lots of exciting facts to share, along with quirky or personal insights into the world of animals. Throughout the pages, Wohlleben challenges readers to hone their own observational skills by, for example, watching diving ducks to determine which direction they go before popping to the surface. From details about animal communication to their noisy farts, he provides just the right balance of knowledge and intriguing information for the age of his intended audience:

[Pygmy shrews] love to eat insects, and when they’re hunting, their hearts beat up to a thousand times a minute. That’s ten times faster than your heart. (p. 17)

Rabbits and guinea pigs have a special relationship with their poop. They love to eat grass and leaves, but sometimes they also nibble on their own droppings. (p. 21)

A hedgehog, for instance, has many sharp quills. It just curls up into a spiny ball when it is attacked. Our dog once tried to bite a hedgehog. It hurt his mouth so much that he never tried to do it again! (p. 23)

Lizard children have to be careful, because shortly after birth their own mother does not recognize them anymore. Instead, she may think the tiny creature in front of her is her dinner! (p. 27)

The non-seraph font size is acceptable for the titles and headings, but the informational text is quite small and would be challenging for primary students to read. The double-spacing between lines could have been reduced in favour of a larger font size. Small asterisk symbols * are also unnecessarily used to separate each of the paragraphs.

This style of fact-sharing book would make a good choice as a gift for the youngster passionate about learning more about animals. As an informational or reference book for inclusion in a school library, Do You Know Where the Animals Live? is more survey in nature and does not contain comprehensive information. However, its extensive four-page index is a helpful addition for students searching for specific information, and it also includes a refreshing and age-appropriate explanation for how to correctly use the index itself. Although the vocabulary is age-appropriate, a glossary page would have been a welcome extra. Most of these are taken from Shutterstock and other stock image sources.

Overall, Do You Know Where the Animals Live? Discovering the Incredible Creatures All Around Us offers an entertaining and enlightening journey through the lives of animals. It encourages a new appreciation for the daily activities of animals around the globe, both small and large, commonplace and lesser-known. It gently encourages youngsters to develop greater empathy and understanding of ways we can better support and care for animal life in the world around us.