Text and pictures of some of the animals, birds, and other creatures that can be found in New Jersey.

A variety of animals common to North America pose for portraits against a white background while narrating distinctive aspects of their natural histories: animals such as the American bullfrog, American toad, blue jay, Ohio crawfish, goldfish, southern flying squirrel, big brown bat, fox snake, eastern screech-owl, gray treefrog, bush katydid, Virginia opossum, Chinese praying mantis, jumping spider, red flat bark beetle, black swallowtail, eastern spiny softshell turtle, red-eyed vireo, eastern box turtle, spotted salamander, monarch. Includes curious critters silhouettes quiz and answer key.

Follow the annual life cycle of spotted salamanders.

“Fear deer no more! The best source I’ve seen on the topic!” —Tracy DiSabato-Aust, award-winning garden designer and best-selling author Deer are one of the most common problems a gardener can face. These cute but pesky animals can quickly devour hundreds of dollars’ worth of plants. And common solutions include the use of unattractive fencing and chemicals. In Deer-Resistant Design, Karen Chapman offers another option—intentional design choices that result in beautiful gardens that coexist with wildlife. Deer-Resistant Design showcases real home gardens across North America—from a country garden in New Jersey to a hilltop hacienda in Texas—that have successfully managed the presence of deer. Each homeowner also shares their top ten deer-resistant plants, all welcome additions to a deer-challenged gardeners shopping list. A chapter on deer-resistant container gardens provides suggestions for making colorful, captivating, and imaginative containers. Lushly illustrated and filled with practical advice and inspiring design ideas, Deer-Resistant Design is packed with everything you need to confidently tackle this challenging problem.

Katie and the Kudzu King is about a little girl from New Jersey who visits her country cousins in Georgia. Leaving the airport, she spies the kudzu vines covering telephone poles, trees, bushes and everything else. The sight scares her because the scene resembles ghosts and grotesque creatures. Her cousins are amused by her fear and tease her, but later help her learn about this extraordinary vine. The book's theme is that the kudzu covering trees and bushes by southern highways looks startlingly like "monsters" waiting to cross the road, or perhaps to gobble up some unwary traveler. My own children saw many such monsters in the masses of kudzu, and we often played a travel game similar to seeing faces and objects in the clouds. Kudzu (Pueraria lobata) is a vine in the pea family that is ubiquitous in the South. It climbs, coils, spreads rapidly and generally covers everything in its path (telephone poles, bushes and trees and even whole buildings) if left unchecked. Although dormant during winters in the South, come Spring it revives and can grow a foot per day in the summer heat. It is native to southeast China and southern Japan and was brought to the United States in the late 1870's to use for cattle fodder and also for curbing erosion. Some animals (goats and llamas, for example) like it and other animals won't touch it. State highway departments in the South planted kudzu as roadside erosion control, but it quickly grew out of hand. Kudzu is almost impossible to eradicate. It can spread by seeds in the pods that form on the vine, or by vine stolons (runners) It is actually a pretty plant with a deep green color and has a beautiful purple flower reminiscent of wisteria.

In this eloquent plea for compassion and respect for all species, journalist and gardener Nancy Lawson describes why and how to welcome wildlife to our backyards. Through engaging anecdotes and inspired advice, profiles of home gardeners throughout the country, and interviews with scientists and horticulturalists, Lawson applies the broader lessons of ecology to our own outdoor spaces. Detailed chapters address planting for wildlife by choosing native species; providing habitats that shelter baby animals, as well as birds, bees, and butterflies; creating safe zones in the garden; cohabiting with creatures often regarded as pests; letting nature be your garden designer; and encouraging natural processes and evolution in the garden. The Humane Gardener fills a unique niche in describing simple principles for both attracting wildlife and peacefully resolving conflicts with all the creatures that share our world.

"Discover the stranger side of the animal kingdom with creatures that will either make your heart beat with horror or your jaw drop in amazement in Curious Creatures. This book is sure to delight animal lovers and readers of all ages"--Page 4 of cover.

Award-winning writer and illustrator Andrea Antinori takes us on a whimsical journey that marries fiction and fact as it explores the history, habits, and habitats of lemurs, one of the funniest (and most fun to draw) animals on the planet. Have you ever heard a lemur sing? Did you know that in the morning lemurs sunbathe while doing yoga and worshiping the sun? And some can even levitate. In this whimsical, fictional take on lemurs, which incorporates many true facts, award-winning writer and illustrator Andrea Antinori amusingly chronicles the history, habits, and quirks of one of the most unusual animals on the planet. The lemurs’ story begins fifty million years ago, when they left Africa on the back of a sperm whale and landed in Madagascar (maybe)…and the rest is an unnatural history. Comprehensive educational backmatter presents amazing (and true) facts about these incredible and seriously endangered animals.

These books are hours of fun with full-color dot-to-dots, crosswords, hidden pictures, mazes & word searches! Each First Activity book also offers extras such as mystery-word searches, scrambled letters and fun facts to extend the play and learning value of the puzzles.