Great Books About Animals Published in 2016

A look at great books about animals published in 2016. New reads for toddlers through middle school readers.

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I find that the combination of animals and books is a consistent winner – for both my children and their friends. Today I’m featuring some great books about animals that were published in 2016. All of these books were approved by my kids, and I think your children will enjoy them as well! I was sent review copies of these books. All opinions are my own, and I only review the books that I receive that we truly enjoy.

Great Children’s Books About Animals Published in 2016

New Middle Grade Fiction Your Child Will Love

This tear-jerker is my favorite book from this month. I usually just let Emma review the middle grade fiction, but decided to read it after seeing the impact this book had on her. Maxi’s Secrets touches on a lot of issues that middle grade through high school (and adults) will identify with, including:

• Moving to a new place and being the new kid.
• Not fitting in.
• Working through snap judgments (your own as well as those of others).
• Doing and saying the wrong thing – and then having to figure out how to make things right again.

This beautifully written book features a fascinating and diverse range of characters. Read this book!

A Cute Animal Board Book for Your Toddler

I’ve written before about how much we love David McPhail’s picture books. This new book, Olivia Loves Owl, lived up to my expectations. You know how young children treat their favorite toys as if they are truly alive? As a child, I believed for years that my toys came to life when I wasn’t looking. David McPhail has captured that child-toy dynamic perfectly in this book.

A Book to Make Your Preschooler Laugh

Monsters would be animals if they were real, right?

This book needed to be featured, and this was my opportunity to feature it. Four-year-old Anna has fits of giggles over these monsters who take baths in chocolate pudding, wear toilet paper as pajamas, and take tubas to bed instead of soft toys. This joyfully playful book is a quick and fun parent-child read.

Non-Fiction Books About Animals

This Animal Kingdom Factivity Pack comes with three separate books:

• Polar Pals
• Forest Friends
• Underwater Wonderland

Each book teaches kids about different animals, reinforcing the information through games and activities. It’s a great little activity package you can pair with a unit on animals, and also great for plane trips and car rides. The books are quite small  (the case is 8 x 7 x 2 inches), so it is highly portable. Seven-year-old Lily really enjoyed this Factivity pack.

Shark Factivity goes into a great deal more detail than the little animal kingdom factivity books. The book is very detailed (125 pages), and it comes with six (molded, not real) shark teeth. We had to tape the pages about shark attacks shut because one of my children (who has anxiety anyway) found them very upsetting, but overall my kids loved this book. Both 10-year-old Emma and 8-year-old Johnny spent a lot of time reading through this book and taking notes. Emma even created a worksheet based on the information in this book.

Just for Fun Animal Books for Kids

Animals: 36 Wild and Wacky Adventures features fun activities and open-ended sticker pages. The book has so many stickers that you are bound to find some left over for other activities or letter writing.

Spot a Lot: Animals is a book plus jigsaw puzzle set. You can color the reverse side of the puzzle, and the book is great for practicing counting with littles.

Do you know of any great books about animals published in 2016 that missed this list? Please let me know! You can comment here, drop a note on my Facebook page, or tag me on Instagram or Twitter.

MaryAnne Kochenderfer

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MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.