The Best Big Books About Animals for Kids Ages 8-12

Kids love big books about animals. My kids are fiercely protective of their nonfiction books full of facts about living creatures and will spend hours at a time looking through them.

And of course, the bigger, the better. Large formats are especially welcome, as are chapter books loaded with stories pictures, and facts.

Because I know my kids aren’t the only ones that love big books about animals and nature, I decided to share what’s on our shelves.

Oh, and this blog post contains affiliate links. If you click a link and make a purchase, I’ll receive a small commission. It doesn’t cost you anything, but it helps me keep the blog running.

The Best Big Books About Animals

Ultimate Oceanpedia: The Most Complete Ocean Reference Ever by Christina Wilsdon

I love animal encyclopedias, so of course, I love this big book dedicated to marine wildlife. Anything that lives in the ocean can be found within these pages. In true National Geographic Kids style, there are big, beautiful photographs, interesting facts, and lots of info for kids to pore over.

Books about animals are always a hit with my kids. Ultimate Oceanpedia is written in a way that’s easy to understand and digest while still delivering enough facts to make it more than just your run-of-the-mill ocean animal book.

This is an excellent choice for kids that like animals, nature, the beach, or just learning new stuff.

[button url=”http://amzn.to/2vM0nW9″]Amazon[/button]  [button url=”https://www.bookdepository.com/Ultimate-Oceanpedia/9781426325502/?a_aid=batchofbooks”]Book Depository[/button]  [button url=”https://bookshop.org/a/5613/9781426325502″]Bookshop.org[/button]

Animals: A Visual Encyclopedia by Animal Planet and various authors

This book is full of information about a wide variety of animals with full-color photos all the way through. The text is more advanced than the Little Kids National Geographic books my children usually read, but it’s written with kids in mind. Kids between the ages of 9 and 14 will especially like this book because it has the best of both worlds. It’s visually appealing and interesting, while also being very in-depth and informative.

One thing you should know about this book is that it’s enormous! When they say encyclopedia, they mean it. It’s not a lightweight picture book. It is a large, heavy book designed to give kids lots of information about the animal kingdom.

[button url=”http://amzn.to/2wa7AjB”]Amazon[/button]  [button url=”https://www.bookdepository.com/Animals–A-Visual-Encyclopedia/9781618931535/?a_aid=batchofbooks”]Book Depository[/button]

Animal Bites Series by Animal Planet

This is a wonderful series that ends up being pretty big when you have the whole set. With six books in the series about various types of animals, my kids have spent endless hours with them. One of the things I like the most about this series is that it’s kid-friendly. It has big pictures and info boxes and uses wit, humor, and puns to teach kids about animals. This series is very well done!

Wild Animals:

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Farm Animals:

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Ocean Animals: 

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Polar Animals: 

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Baby Animals: 

[button url=”http://amzn.to/2w9QX7G”]Amazon[/button]  [button url=”https://www.bookdepository.com/Animal-Planet-Baby-Animals-Dorothe-DePrisco-Animal-Planet/9781618931788/?a_aid=batchofbooks”]Book Depository[/button]

Animals on the Move: 

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Wicked Bugs (Young Reader’s Edition) by Amy Stewart, illustrated by Briony Morrow-Cribbs

This book is for kids that love the creepiest, slimiest, and grossest critters on earth. Told through stories and facts, Wicked Bugs is for kids that like nature, science, and that uncomfortable, squirmy feeling you get when you think about roaches crawling over your skin.

It’s wildly fascinating, with information on things like tapeworms and tarantulas as well as shocking facts about earthworms and ants.

For whatever reason, kids love things that make adults shudder. So, if your kid has jars of bugs in their room or is always trying to show you their latest catch, they’ll love this book!

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Strange, Unusual, Gross, & Cool Animals by Animal Planet

This is one of my favorite books on this list. It’s received a bunch of national attention for being so dang interesting (because it is!).

Weird animals are SO interesting and kids love them. This book is full of some seriously strange animals. You might recognize a few of them, but everything in it is unusual, weird, or gross in some way. My kids love learning about the different animals that exist in the world and telling me all about them.

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