About the Holiday

The month of December is a gift-giver’s delight, and there’s no better gift for everyone on your list than a book (or two or . . .). With so many new books hitting bookstore shelves and the long winter days stretching in front of us, this is the perfect time to add to your home bookshelves. Today’s featured book is a gift that keeps giving every day of the year. How? Read on and see! 

Thank you to Bright Matter Books, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books and Barbara Fisch of Blue Slip Media for sharing An Animal a Day with me for review consideration. All opinions on the book are my own.

An Animal a Day: 365 Amazing Animals to Take You through the Year

Written by Miranda Smith

Illustrated by Kaja Kajfež, Santiago Calle, Mateo Markov and Max Rambaldi

The animal kingdom truly is diverse! From the land to the sea to the sky and even the most forbidding places on Earth, there live incredible creatures perfectly suited to their environments. Children are particularly fascinated by the range, size, behaviors, and survival skills of the world’s denizens. But how to get to know them all? A fantastic place to start is with An Animal a Day, which introduces readers to 365 mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and invertebrates in bite-sized paragraphs, accompanied by scientific facts.

Image copyright Kaja Kajfež, Santiago Calle, Mateo Markov and Max Rambaldi, 2023. Text copyright Miranda Smith, 2023. Courtesy of Bright Matter Books.

But before you dive in, there are two paragraphs of note: One explains how “new species of animals are being discovered all the time” and gives as an example the May, 2023 announcement that “more than 5,000 new species had been found living on the seabed of the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, an unexplored area of the Pacific Ocean.” Another defines the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List conservation rating, which is also included in each animals’ description.

And now the year begins! January 1 introduces the Polar Bear, in which a mother bear leads her cubs over the ice to the water where she will teach them “how to swim, hunt seals and survive in the cold” while raising them over three years to be self-sufficient. As the month progresses, children meet the Goliath Frog (a frog as big as a cat), a Hoopoe bird (the males engage in song duels to deter rivals), and the Indian Flying Fox (which, besides having an imposing 5-foot wingspan, looks like a combination of a bat and a fox), among 27 other critters.

Image copyright Kaja Kajfež, Santiago Calle, Mateo Markov and Max Rambaldi, 2023. Text copyright Miranda Smith, 2023. Courtesy of Bright Matter Books.

Each month also contains two, two-page spreads that present animals that, while very different, are connected by some special feature, such as being record breakers, where they live, mimicry, even harboring some stealthy strategy for survival.

Just a quick dip into the pages, led me to the Nudibranch, a blue sea slug that devours animals larger than it is, “including the highly venomous Portuguese man-o-war,” from which it “. . . stores the stinging nematocysts . . . in the tips of its extremities [and] uses these stinging ‘fingers’ to defend itself when necessary.”

Image copyright Kaja Kajfež, Santiago Calle, Mateo Markov and Max Rambaldi, 2023. Text copyright Miranda Smith, 2023. Courtesy of Bright Matter Books.

I also met the Tiger Quoll, a creature of the rainforest that travels for miles each night in search of food, and the Peacock Mantis Shrimp, a colorful but fearsome 7-inch long crustacean that moves so fast it can “hit prey, such as a crab, with a force that smashes its shell” and which can create “bubbles in the water as hot as the sun, causing a shockwave strong enough to stun or kill.” I finally had to say auld lang syne to the year with the Asian Elephant and a view of a mother elephant and her youngster foraging for the “up to 285 pounds of vegetation” they each will eat that day. 

Image copyright Kaja Kajfež, Santiago Calle, Mateo Markov and Max Rambaldi, 2023. Text copyright Miranda Smith, 2023. Courtesy of Bright Matter Books.

But why should I have all the fun? Just imagine the wide-eyes, the “wow!”s, and the eager anticipation for the next day’s animal that your kids will experience as they meet each of these distinctive creatures through Miranda Smith’s clear, accessible, and captivating text for all ages. Each entry is punctuated with the kinds of nifty details that enthrall children and get them excited to learn more.

Accompanying each animal’s description is a lifelike drawing of the creature in its environment. Colorful and active, these illustrations allow kids to really bond with each animal and understand the whys and hows of their behaviors. In the case of the Amazon Leaf Fish, it may even take a moment before readers see the camouflaged fish among the dead leaves sunk beneath the water. The double-page spreads with their black backgrounds and highlighted animals are worthy of natural history museum displays and will entice readers to stop and stay awhile.

An Animal a Day would make a much-appreciated gift for any animal-loving child and is a must for public and school library collections as well as elementary school classrooms.

Ages 5 – 10 and up

Bright Matter Books, 2024 | ISBN 978-0593903353

Read a New Book Month Activity

Animal Coloring Pages

Enjoy these coloring pages of some favorite animals!

Giraffe and Elephant on the Savanah | Hanging Snake | Tiger

You can purchase An Animal a Day at these booksellers

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop (to support your local independent bookstore)

Picture Book Review