An Immense World (Young Readers Edition): How Animals Sense Earth’s Amazing Secrets

Gr 4-8–Yong’s young readers edition of his popular adult title is intriguing and thought-provoking. Each creature on Earth lives in its own sensory bubble, called an umwelt, and its senses are tuned to its needs. Yong describes attempting to understand another animal’s umwelt as magical, and it most certainly is. Readers meet spiders who can see forward, sideways, and backward all at once, squirrels whose heart beats five times a minute in winter, and treehoppers who communicate by vibrations. Accompanying these profiles are delightful and colorful illustrations. Each chapter lists words to remember, defining new vocabulary entered in it, and “Ed’s Field Notes” spotlights specific animals and their amazing senses. It ends with a call to conserve wildlife by understanding how people truly engage with their environment (not how they think they do), and a reminder that the wilderness is not distant, but in our backyards and city parks. The content is easy to understand and will hold readers’ attention.