In this post, we feature author Eleanor Spicer Rice, whose previous titles include Unseen Jungle: The Microbes That Secretly Control Our World, which was named a Junior Library Guild selection and a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year. You can hear her speak about her new title, Your Pets’ Secret Lives: The Truth Behind Your Pets’ Wildest Behaviors, the second title in the Your Hidden Life series, and try her “invitation to imagine” activity. You’ll also find other resources to explore. Thanks for joining us, and let us know what you think in the comments below!
Your Pets’ Secret Lives: The Truth Behind Your Pets’ Wildest Behaviors
- Written by Eleanor Spicer Rice and illustrated by Rob Wilson
- Published by MIT Kids Press, an imprint of Candlewick Press
- Release date: May 28, 2024
Butt-sniffing dogs. Terrified tarantulas. Canaries with invisible force fields? Yep—it turns out our pets experience the world in totally different ways than we do. Unlock some of your nonhuman family members’ wildest behaviors in this hilarious (and sometimes shiver-worthy) illustrated guide to their secret lives, complete with exciting interviews with the scientists who research them. From fierce hamster stink wars to the hidden wild side of Bubbles the goldfish, who knew there was so much more to understand about our furry and scaly friends? Back matter includes websites for do-it-yourself research, a bibliography of real studies and scientists, a glossary, and even some how-to-draws (how about tapeworms high-fiving on a poop rocket?). Bold, playful illustrations and witty text combine in this delightfully fun and gross page-flipper from the team behind Your Hidden Life: Unseen Jungle.
From Your Pets’ Secret Lives: The Truth Behind Your Pets’ Wildest Behaviors, written by Eleanor Spicer Rice.
“More than half of us live with a creature that is not a human.”
Click here to view a longer preview of Your Pets’ Secret Lives: The Truth Behind Your Pets’ Wildest Behaviors, written by Eleanor Spicer Rice.
Explore Your Pets’ Secret Lives: The Truth Behind Your Pets’ Wildest Behaviors
Listen to Eleanor Spicer Rice talking with TeachingBooks about creating Your Pets’ Secret Lives: The Truth Behind Your Pets’ Wildest Behaviors. You can click the player below or experience the recording on TeachingBooks, where you can read along as you listen, and also translate the text to another language.
- Listen to Eleanor Spicer Rice pronounce her name.
- Sample the ebook of Your Pets’ Secret Lives: The Truth Behind Your Pets’ Wildest Behaviors on OverDrive.com.
- Explore TeachingBooks’ collection of activities and resources for Your Pets’ Secret Lives: The Truth Behind Your Pets’ Wildest Behaviors.
Invitation to Imagine
TeachingBooks asks each author or illustrator on our Virtual Book Tour to share a writing prompt, a drawing exercise, or just an interesting question to spark curiosity and creativity. Enjoy the following activity contributed by Eleanor Spicer Rice.
Imagination Activity with Eleanor Spicer Rice
What would be the pet of your dreams? Make a list of all your perfect pet’s superpowers. For example, does it have the wings of a parakeet? The digging abilities of a gerbil? The sweetness of your favorite dog? Could you ride it like you would ride a horse? Would it be as soft as a rabbit?
A good way to find something you’d like to have is in classified ads. These are short requests listing something you want to sell or buy. After you make a list of your dream pet’s characteristics, write a classified advertisement that searches for your pet. Then, draw a picture of the pet of your dreams. Label all the characteristics from your list on your drawing.
If you want to take this a step further, write a paragraph describing what you would do with your dream pet. Would you take it for walks (or for a flight)? What would you feed it? What would you name it? Go wild!
Finish This Sentence . . . with Eleanor Spicer Rice
As part of our Virtual Book Tour, TeachingBooks asks authors and illustrators to complete short sentence prompts. Enjoy Eleanor Spicer Rice’s response.
“I hope my book may encourage readers to think about…”
I hope my book may encourage readers to think about the wonderful, sometimes hidden, sometimes surprising workings of the life that surrounds us always. Whether we’re in the middle of the woods or on our front stoops, there’s always life around us doing something amazing. Ants trail across the sidewalk or up tree trunks. Mushrooms push up from the earth. Birds sing to each other. Each of us is fortunate that, no matter where we are, no matter what we’re doing, there is guaranteed to be something wonderful happening nearby.
“Where I work is…”
Because I write about nature, I get to spend a lot of time outdoors, which is the greatest place to be. At home, I often work at my kitchen table and spend most of the day with one of our two dogs asking me to please stop working (photographic evidence below). The scruffy little dog is Nature Boy. He sits like a little vulture in my lap while I work, hoping for treats. The big dog is Betty. She likes to knock my hand off my keyboard with her nose. She does this until I take them for a walk. We end up walking A LOT!
Thank you!
To wrap up this Virtual Book Tour, we thank Eleanor Spicer Rice for signing a book for all of us.
More Connections to Eleanor Spicer Rice and Your Pets’ Secret Lives: The Truth Behind Your Pets’ Wildest Behaviors
- Discover books like Your Pets’ Secret Lives: The Truth Behind Your Pets’ Wildest Behaviors on TeachingBooks.
- Candlewick’s page about Your Pets’ Secret Lives: The Truth Behind Your Pets’ Wildest Behaviors, written by Eleanor Spicer Rice and illustrated by Rob Wilson.
- Buy Your Pets’ Secret Lives: The Truth Behind Your Pets’ Wildest Behaviors, written by Eleanor Spicer Rice and illustrated by Rob Wilson.
All text and images are courtesy of Eleanor Spicer Rice, Rob Wilson, and Candlewick Press and may not be used without expressed written consent.
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