If you've never seen a lowland tapir, you're not alone. Most of the people who live near tapir habitat in Brazil's vast Pantanal ("the Everglades on steroids") haven't seen the elusive snorkel-snouted mammal, either. In this arresting nonfiction picture book, Sibert winners Sy Montgomery and Nic Bishop join a tapir-finding expedition led by the Brazilian field scientist Pati Medici. Aspiring scientists will love the immediate, often humorous "you are there" descriptions of fieldwork, and gadget lovers will revel in the high-tech science at play, from microchips to the camera traps that capture the "soap opera" of tapir life.

The Tapir Scientist - Saving South America's Largest Mammal

A 2007 Sibert Honor Book  It looks like a bear, but isn't one. It climbs trees as easily as a monkey- but isn't a monkey, either. It has a belly pocket like a kangaroo, but what's a kangaroo doing up a tree? Meet the amazing Matschie's tree kangaroo, who makes its home in the ancient trees of Papua New Guinea's cloud forest. And meet the amazing scientists who track these elusive animals.

The Quest for the Tree Kangaroo - An Expedition to the Cloud Forest of New Guinea

Is There Anyone Out There? investigates whether there is life beyond planet Earth. The non-chronological report examines what we already know about the Solar System and the possibility of life on other planets. It also offers ideas of what aliens in certain sorts of environments might look like.

 White/Band 10 books have more complex sentences and figurative language.

 Text type - A non-chronological report.

 Pages 30 and 31 contain a table of conditions needed to sustain life to encourage children to recap the information.

 Curriculum links - Art and design: Mother Nature designer; Science: Forces and movement, Plants and animals, Variation.

 Leading science and wildlife author and photographer Nic Bishop has contributed three other titles to Collins Big Cat - Look Out Butterfly!, Fantastic Flying Squirrel and The Cloud Forest.

 This title is paired with a story on the same theme: Buzz and Bingo in the Starry Sky by Alan Durant.

 This book has been levelled for Reading Recovery.

 This book has been quizzed for Accelerated Reader.

Is There Anyone Out There? - Band 10/White

Build your child's reading confidence at home with books at the right level

 In this information book, detailed photographs, illustrations and vivid descriptions are used to introduce readers to some of the tiniest and weirdest monsters in the natural world. Information is organised into short chapters to help with information retrieval and the contents list can be used to select material for reading.

 Copper/Band 12 books provide more complex plots and longer chapters that develop reading stamina.

 Text type - An information book.

 Pages 30 and 31 feature a table of weird little monsters that supports readers as they recount information.

 Curriculum links - Art and design: Mother Nature, designer; Science: Habitats; Music: Animal magic - Exploring descriptive sounds.

 This book has been quizzed for Accelerated Reader.

Weird Little Monsters - Band 12/Copper

The extinction of dinosaurs some sixty-five million years ago is one of the greatest biological catastrophes in the history of our planet. Yet in recent years, paleontologists have turned up increasing evidence that ancestors of one group of dinosaurs still fly among us: birds. Join Cathy Forster, one of the few female paleontologists working today, on an expedition to Madagascar in search of clues to the mystery of bird evolution.

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