Animals in Winter

Now that it’s snowing, my daughter has started to vocally express how fortunate we are to have a home to live in, and how sorrowful she is that many people do not. She’s finally begun to understand much of what we have been talking about in terms of homelessness. She’s also wondering just how all of the animals outside manage to survive in the wintertime without a house, so we picked up a science book about hibernation and migration called Animals in Winter. Written by Henrietta Bancroft and Richard G. Van Gelder, the book explains how many common animals survive the winter. It opens with some Asian American children playing, which I also liked; too many books feature white American children, leaving so many others left out. Birds and butterflies are discussed first, and some myths about migration are dispelled. Not all birds migrate, but we learn that both bluebirds and orioles do, as well as monarch butterflies. Not all bats migrate, either; some do, while others hibernate all winter long, like other mammals, and don’t even eat until spring.