Summertime Sleepers: Animals That Estivate [Paperback]

A 2022 Robert F. Sibert Honor Book

Everyone knows about animals that hibernate in the winter. But it's time to discover animals that sleep all summer long!

All science classrooms discuss animals that hibernate during winter months, but few know about animals that estivate--a prolonged sleep during hot or dry periods. Dual layers of text awaken readers to the reasons estivating animals become dormant--whether it's because warm weather threatens food supply or to avoid increased body temperatures. From the ladybug to the salamander, from the lungfish to the desert hedgehog, twelve estivating animals and their habits--both when sleeping and awake--are explained through clear text and elegant watercolor illustrations that create a scrapbook feel.♦ Employing her splendid talent for making science cool, Melissa Stewart (Can an Aardvark Bark?) introduces young readers to creatures that go dormant not through the winter, but during the summer. Hibernation is a well-known concept; estivation less so. Stewart aims to change that. Her enthusiasm for these unfamiliar snoozers, combined with stunningly realistic watercolor illustrations by Sarah S. Brannen (illustrator of Stewart's Feathers: Not Just for Flying), make summer sleepers the superstars in the charming nonfiction picture book Summertime Sleepers: Animals that Estivate.
The main text offers general groupings of animals that estivate: Some hard-shelled creatures climb up high for a nap.../ ...while others doze underground. Then, in secondary narratives, specific critters take the spotlight: When the days grow long and hot, land snails cling to tree branches and seal their shells shut. Their heart rates slow, and they barely breathe as they wait for cooler days. To offer even more information for eager learners, a black-and-white logbook page appears amid the llē