Newborns: How Baby Animals Come Into the World

by Paulina Jara, Mercè Galí (Illustrator), Lawrence Schimel (Translator)

Overview

Did you know that Darwin's frogs hatch as tadpoles in their father's mouth? Or that a baby giraffe has to survive a six-foot fall because its mother is standing when it's born?

What about how a baby dolphin has to swim up to the surface immediately after it's born to take its first breath? Some gestation periods are days; some are years. Some babies are born ready to fend for themselves while others rely on their parents for months. From scorpions to ravens to red kangaroos, all animals have their own miraculous processes to keep their species thriving. With its sweet, striking artwork and fascinating facts about 25 diverse animals, Newborns: How Baby Animals Come into the World is a great introduction to animal behavior for young readers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781459834057
Publisher:	Orca Book Publishers
Publication date:	03/11/2025
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	64
File size:	60 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	6 - 8 Years

About the Author

Paulina Jara is a Chilean author with experience in theater and differential education. She has developed a career focused on reading animation and oral narration which has led her to work as an expert advisor for school libraries. She has published more than 15 titles with various publishers.

Mercè Galí is an illustrator from Barcelona who grew up surrounded by books in her parents’ bookstore. She studied illustration at the “Llotja” art school and fine arts at the University of Barcelona with a specialty in engraving. She is mainly dedicated to illustration for children and young people and has published in over seven countries. Occasionally she combines illustration with teaching, giving creative workshops on art and engraving for children and adults at the Manolo Hugué art school.

Paulina Jara is a Chilean author with experience in theater and differential education. She has developed a career focused on reading animation and oral narration which has led her to work as an expert in advising for school libraries. She has published more than 15 titles with various publishers.

Mercè Galí is an illustrator from Barcelona who grew up surrounded by books in her parents' bookstore. She studied illustration at the "Llotja" art school and Fine Arts at the University of Barcelona with a specialty in engraving. She is mainly dedicated to illustration for children and young people and has published in over seven countries. Occasionally she combines illustration with teaching, giving creative workshops on art and engraving for children and adults at the Manolo Hugué art school.

Lawrence Schimel writes in both Spanish and English and has published over 120 books as author or anthologist in a wide range of genres, including fiction, poetry, graphic novels and children’s literature. He has twice won a Lambda Literary Award and has also won a Crystal Kite Award from the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, a White Raven from the International Youth Library in Munich, and has been chosen for IBBY's Outstanding Books for Young People with Disabilities three times. Lawrence is also a prolific literary translator. He lives in Madrid, Spain, where he founded the Spanish chapter of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators and served as regional advisor for five years.

Editorial Reviews

A lighthearted celebration of the miracle of birth…Adds both perspective and a positive spin on a universal experience.”

Kirkus Reviews

Entertaining and very informative...the text is casual and easy to understand, the cartoon-style illustrations add to the fun, and the wild fact boxes are fascinating.”

Sal's Fiction Addiction

★ “The highly stylized art is simple yet exudes texture and depth. Makes the science of procreation accessible to young minds. A perfect way to start incubating a respect and appreciation for all lifeforms. [This] beautifully illustrated picture book teaches budding readers about the variety of amazing ways baby animals can enter the world.”

starred review Shelf Awareness

As an introduction to this topic, there are neat facts in Newborns: How Baby Animals Come Into the World and a nice variety of species for kids who are curious about animals. They’ll have some basic knowledge to recall when reading more detailed investigations of animal life cycles. Recommended.”

CM: Canadian Review of Materials

★ “The highly stylized art is simple yet exudes texture and depth. Makes the science of procreation accessible to young minds. A perfect way to start incubating a respect and appreciation for all lifeforms. [This] beautifully illustrated picture book teaches budding readers about the variety of amazing ways baby animals can enter the world.”

Shelf Awareness, starred review

2024-12-14
Translated from Spanish, a lighthearted celebration of the miracle of birth, from being spit out by a daddy Darwin’s frog to a baby giraffe’s six-foot drop to the ground.

With the avowed intention of showing “how wondrous and diverse—and cute!—the natural world is,” the author recaps common natal experiences for 25 animals, accompanied by Galí’s fluidly drawn cartoon portraits, mostly of smiling parents and offspring together. The breezy tone is decidedly infectious. Jara describes a mating dance between scorpions that eventually results in “scorplings,” commends the young of the paradoxically named seven-arm octopus, who are immediately ready to float off and “make their mother proud,” and coos that opossums give birth to “around 20 teeny joeys” at a time. Some newlings are born nearly helpless, while others are fully ready to strike out on their own. Amazingly, the armadillo can put active pregnancies on hold, while the alpine salamander’s gestation varies, depending on the altitude at which it lives (two years for those living at 3,200 feet and three years for those that reside even higher). These and other airy facts set a mellow mood for the final animal babies, which are the human ones—“the only living creatures that smile intentionally at their parents,” the author writes fetchingly. The sleeping infant has light pink skin.

Adds both perspective and a positive spin on a universal experience. (glossary)(Informational picture book. 6-8)

Kirkus Reviews