For the kid who's "bored" by 4pm and the backyard that's been hiring all along.
Right now there's a Chief Soil Restructuring Officer working under your lawn, an air-traffic crew in the flowerbed, and an entire waste-management team in the compost heap.
Your child just hasn't met them yet. This book handles the introductions 50 creatures, 50 ridiculous job titles, and one garden they'll never call boring again.
FOR THE KID WHO'S BORED BY 4PM
The garden path. The compost heap. That dark patch under the porch. All of it fully staffed — foreman beetles, air-traffic bees, a Chief Soil Restructuring Officer clocking in under the lawn.
Open to any page and the backyard stops being boring. It becomes the funniest, most fascinating place on earth.
A FIELD IN DISGUISE
Every double-page spread hides three objects to find, a riddle to crack, and one creature's ridiculous job title. Kids race to spot the hidden objects. They laugh at the field notes. And somewhere in the middle — without ever noticing — they learn what a worm actually does all day. No textbook language. Just kid-friendly writing and golden-age watercolour art that pulls them in before they've read a word.
50 creatures · 125 full-colour pages · 3 hidden objects per spread
THE GIFT THAT BEATS A SCREEN
Birthdays, holidays, “just because” — this is the gift that gets opened, read at the dinner table, and quoted back at you for weeks. Large format, built to be dipped into: every creature is self-contained, so there's no losing your place and no pressure to finish. One book, hours away from a screen.
🎁 Most parents order two — one to keep, one to gift!
FROM THE AUTHOR
Claire Monroe homeschools two nature-obsessed kids — which means every page of this book was field-tested on the toughest audience there is. Her rule: if it doesn't make her kids laugh, look up, or run outside to check for themselves, it doesn't go in.
The Secret Jobs of Backyard Creatures is Book 1 of the Secret Animal Jobs series — the ocean edition is already a family favourite.
As a retired science teacher and grandmother I am always looking for something that brings out the fun in learning, and this book certainly has the potential. What a great tool to begin a scavenger hunt in the backyard and spend quality family time together! I found myself as an adult looking up additional facts about these bugs to satisfy my own curiosity. The Seek and Find and bug jokes are great touches!
The most loved aspect was my kids using a little magnifier glass to find what was asked at the bottom of each page. The little jokes were fun and memorable — they wanted me to tell them all through the day. They'll pick this book up at any time of day. Now that I have the ebook, I have to have the hard copy too. It's a favorite.
Fun book. We enjoyed learning about the garden creatures. We especially enjoyed the seek and find at the bottom of the pages — sometimes we had to go back a page to find the thing we were looking for, but we figured it out after a while.
On each page there are a few facts about each creature, their common name, scientific name, and job title, a joke, and some hidden images to find. This book is great for kids who get overwhelmed by books with “too many words.” My daughters, 7 and 11, both loved it, and so did I! We homeschool and I love finding educational books that teach my kids while we have fun.
My grandkids enjoy looking at this book and learning that each creature has its own job — even if we can't see the “work” happening below the surface.
A very sweet book. Wonderful illustrations, hidden objects to find, short passages to read. A great way for children to begin exploring the outside world. Children younger than 6 would also enjoy this if someone read it to them.
The illustrations are adorable, the hidden pictures an extra bonus to keep the kids engaged while reading, the facts are easy to absorb, and the jokes are simple enough the kids understand. Such a fun book!
A lot of information is included! I can see kids who enjoy being outdoors and kids who enjoy “creepy crawlies” really enjoying this book.
This is a MUST have for curious little minds! The book makes it fun to learn about these creatures and the illustrations are phenomenal.
This is a great book for kids! My kiddo doesn't like reading much but she is truly enjoying this book. Although it's packed with education it is not overwhelming to her — truly holds her interest. I homeschool and this book is an amazing help in a fun way, not like public school science books. I highly recommend it.
Loved this book! Illustrations are adorable and it's really engaging for my son. It has jokes and little things to find on the pages. It makes learning so fun, I even learned some things too! Also makes bugs not seem so scary if you have a little one afraid of them.
Bought this for my 7 year old grandson. It is his favorite book.
GOOD TO KNOW
No — and that's the point. There's no textbook language anywhere. It's real, accurate nature (how decomposing, pollinating and soil engineering actually work) delivered through job titles, field notes, riddles and jokes. Kids remember it because it made them laugh.
The sweet spot is 6–10. Younger kids (from about 5) love it as a read-aloud and seek-and-find; confident readers from about 7 devour it independently. Parents regularly report reading ahead after bedtime.
This one is designed to be dipped into. Every creature is a self-contained two-page spread — start anywhere, stop anywhere. And the three hidden objects on each page give restless kids something to hunt while they read.
Yes — the book is honest about how nature works. Composting, pollination, soil aeration, night-time garden life — all real, all accurate, each creature tagged with its true scientific name on its specimen card. The comedy is just the delivery system.
125 pages in a large 8.5" × 11" full-colour format — big enough for two kids to look at one spread together, which happens a lot.
It's the birthday gift that doesn't get re-gifted — which is why our Buy Two bundle (one for home, one to gift) is the most popular option, and it comes with free printable extras.
We're so confident in the quality of our product that we offer a 30 days satisfaction guarantee.
SECURE YOUR COPY NOWWe're so confident in the quality of our product that we offer a 30 days satisfaction guarantee.
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