The Nocturnals Explore Unique Adaptations of Nighttime Animals: Nonfiction Chapter Book Companion to The Mysterious Abductions

by Tracey Hecht

Overview

Explore Unique Nocturnal Animal Adaptations with Fun Facts from The Nocturnals!
This Middle Grade Nonfiction book is for Kids Ages 9–12 and has over 150 full-color animal photos.

It’s perfect for fans of National Geographic Kids and Magic Tree House Fact Tracker books.

This nonfiction book uses fun facts and a narrative from the adventurous Nocturnals characters—Dawn the fox, Tobin the pangolin, and Bismark the sugar glider—to learn about nighttime animals in their natural habitats.

• Kids discover the special adaptations that help nocturnal animals succeed in the dark and investigate conservation efforts.
• Teachers use the book in life science units as a stand alone or with the companion fiction.
• Librarians use the nonfiction book in STEAM Book Clubs with the companion fiction.

Inside The Book You’ll Find:

• Animals from around the world: red foxes, pangolins, sugar gliders, bats, owls, coyotes, wombats, snakes, woylies, bandicoots, crocodiles, kiwis, tuataras, aye-ayes, jerboas, and more!
• Night Notes that explain unusual adaptations
• Nocturnal Feature Icon Key
• Animal Glossary with full-color photos
• Word Glossary to build STEM vocabulary
• At-Home Science Resources

Teach a Nonfiction Text Unit with Our Educator Guides in your Classroom or Library!

• Next Generation Science & Common Core Language Arts Guide available on our website.
• Can be used as a narrative read or browseable reference material.
• Book is aligned to NGSS & CCSS ELA

Educational Leveling:
Lexile: 930L
Fountas & Pinnell: S

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781944020729
Publisher:	Fabled Films Press
Publication date:	11/29/2022
Series:	The Nocturnals
Pages:	128
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.40(d)
Lexile:	930L (what's this?)
Age Range:	9 - 12 Years

About the Author

Tracey Hecht is a writer and the creative director of Fabled Films Press. She created The Nocturnals, the critically acclaimed middle-grade and early reader series. The American Booksellers Association chose her first book, The Mysterious Abductions, as a Kids’ Indie Next List pick, and her nonfiction book Nighttime Animals: Awesome Features & Surprising Adaptations received the Children’s Book Council Teacher Favorites Award in 2023. In partnership with the New York Public Library, she created a Read Aloud Writing Program that has since been conducted in hundreds of schools, libraries, and bookstores. She attends Bank Street College, where she is studying to receive a dual master’s degree in childhood general education and special education. Tracey splits her time between New York City and Oquossoc, Maine.

Table of Contents

Go Exploring with The Nocturnals 6

Introduction: Discover Animals at Night 8

Nocturnal Animal Features 10

Chapter 1 Foxes Everywhere 13

Chapter 2 Scaly Pangolins 23

Chapter 3 Glide, Sugar Glider! 31

Chapter 4 Tough Wombats 40

Chapter 5 Bandicoot Hide-and-Seek 44

Chapter 6 Woylies at Work 52

Chapter 7 Super-Sensing Owls 56

Chapter 8 Huge Crocs 62

Chapter 9 Kiwis on the Ground 68

Chapter 10 Don't Rush the Tuatara! 73

Chapter 11 Long-Fingered Aye-Ayes 79

Chapter 12 Jumping Jerboas 87

Chapter 13 Venomous Vipers 94

Chapter 14 Clever Coyotes 99

Chapter 15 Night-Flying Bats 104

The Nocturnals Adventure Comas to an End 110

Nocturnal Animal Glossary 112

Word Glossary 120

Research Tips 121

Index 122

About the Creators 126

Photo Credits 127

Editorial Reviews

[The] narration is accompanied by endearing color photographs and fun animal profiles...recurring visual cues draw attention to facts and tidbits to promote further exploration...a welcoming introduction to nighttime animals that celebrates biodiversity.

Foreword Reviews

An ideal and unreservedly recommended addition to family, elementary school, middle school, and community library Pets/Wildlife collections for young readers ages 9-12

Midwest Book Review

2022-09-28
A fictive squad of nighttime animals shines lights on some of their real cousins.

An ensemble developed by Hecht for a series of novels and easy readers intrudes into the photos as naïvely painted figures and pops up between chapters to comment, but Berne does the informational heavy lifting. Here she profiles a select band of nocturnal creatures, from greater horseshoe bats and red foxes to bandicoots and mangrove pit vipers. Many of the animals are native to Australia or subtropical Asia and may be less familiar or even new to young readers in more northerly climes—the powerful owl, for instance, or the small, fungi-eating marsupial woylie—and the photos (by various contributors credited in the backmatter) likewise offer rare views of seven species of pangolins, five kinds of jerboas, and, following a chapter on the sugar glider, glimpses of other gliders, including the parachute frog and the paradise tree snake. Though the language is informal and every short chapter includes mention, usually with photos, of animal babies (aww), the co-author does introduce chewy vocabulary (crepuscular, cathemeral), explains the mechanisms of echolocation and how foxes use Earth’s magnetic field to zero in on prey, and tucks further detail into a listing of further information on each animal, such as diet and habitat. She even adds savvy general research guidelines to the expansive backmatter.

Broader in scope than the title suggests and likely to keep young naturalists reading well past sunset. (glossary, index) (Nonfiction. 9-12)

Kirkus Reviews