Meet the Megafauna! Get to Know 20 of the Largest Animals to Ever Roam the Earth

written by Gabrielle Balkan | illustrated by Quang & Lien
published by Workman Kids | June 27, 2023 | 978-1523508600
ages 7-10 | 56 pages + 10 gatefolds |
>> AVAILABLE: Your local bookstore, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop (Bookshop affiliate links support the author and independent bookstores), Workman
>> ORDER SIGNED COPIES through Oblong Books—they ship!
>> Mega Word Search - Challenge yourself to find 16 mega words!
Answer sheet - Check your answers
>> Favorite Megafauna - Write about the megafauna you find most interesting!
>> Megafauna — My Way - Every writer has their own point of view. Choose the details you think are most interesting!
>> Mega Bookmark - download and print four animal bookmarks
>> Mega Bookmark with Author Signature - download and print four bookmarks with an author message

AWARDS

California Reading Association’s EUREKA! 2024 Excellence in Nonfiction Honor

SELECT REVIEWS
“Sure to appeal to dinosaur fans but may widen the scope of their attention as well. Animal wonders on a grand scale.”— Kirkus

ABOUT THE BOOK
For the kid who’s exhausted every dinosaur book in the library, it’s time to MEET THE MEGAFAUNA!

In this interactive, highly visual book, young readers will encounter 17 supersized animals that once soared the skies, ruled the oceans and prowled the Earth – and meet three more megafauna still roaming the earth today. Readers will gasp at the sheer size and power of these enormous creatures, from a 50-foot-long giant snake that could drown a crocodile to a 20-foot-long giant sloth that could uproot a tree.

Gorgeously illustrated with incredible detail, this interactive tome features 10 fold-out gatefolds that give kids a sense of the grand size of this mostly extinct class of creatures.

Readers will find their new favorite animals roaming the pages, including:

The Giant Turtle, who, 65 million years ago, grew to be 15 feet long by eating jellyfish and seaweed.
The Giant Shark, who, 3.6 million years ago, used their 7-inch-long teeth to eat 2,500 pounds of meat a day.
The Terror Bird, who, 1.8 million years ago, was a 7-foot-tall, 330-pound predator that pursued prey at speeds up to 40 miles per hour.
And megafauna still seen today, such as the Blue Whale, the largest animal to ever live, who is born weighing a whopping 6,000 pounds and grows to 400,000 pounds.

Readers will find their next animal obsession in these fold-out and fold-up pages that give an inside look at a moment in the life of these massive animals. Packed to the brim with facts, this 48-page oversized book answers any question a kid might have about these incredible animals, such as:

What exactly are megafauna?
Where and when did they live?
How did they get to be so huge?
Why have so many disappeared?

The perfect gift for any kid who can’t get enough of the huge Stegosaurus and mighty Tyrannosaurus, this immersive guide is the ultimate addition to every dinosaur fan’s collection.

In addition to information about 20 megafauna, this tome explains how scientists study fossils, why there are so few megafauna alive today, and ideas for protecting megafauna still alive today (like the Eastern Gorilla—there are only 2,600 adults left in the wild).

10 mega gatefolds open out to the side, up to the top, and one special double gatefold opens out to both sides!

Includes: Table of Contents, Animal Statistic boxes, Timeline, 28-word Glossary, Further Connections for book, podcast, and internet recommendations, About the Author and Illustrators, and 10 oversized gatefolds that open out and up.