Cow-Eating Fish and Other Amazing Animals

Christina Wilsdon packs this nonfiction treasury with the kind of animal facts that make kids put down a book and immediately tell someone. Piranhas, armadillos, T. rex, and the Egyptian plover bird all make appearances, and the writing stays accessible enough for upper-elementary readers without dumbing things down. It is part of a series that built a solid reputation for making science feel like discovery rather than homework. Worth noting: this was published in 1996, so a handful of the zoological details may have been updated or revised by current science. No major critical reviews exist to assess depth, but for sparking curiosity about the natural world it does exactly what it promises.