Common Critters: the wildlife in your neighbourhood (6+)

Dan Tavis's humorous illustrations crank up the delight, and a child wanting to learn more will find it in the natural-history backmatter. Pat Brisson employs a variety of verse forms in the book, and she shows how it's done in a back-of-book feature called ""A Peek into the Poet's Toolkit."" Common Critters is a three-tool STEAM book with delightful reading, natural history, and language skills rolled into one.