Nocturnals Book 4: The Hidden Kingdom by Tracey Hecht and Sarah Fieber
This is an outstanding book for teachers and classrooms, appropriate for anyone really--from grades one to six and it would be enjoyed equally by boys and girls.

The suspenseful, slowly building plot of The Hidden Kingdom centers on an odd but endearing crew of animals who consider themselves caped crusaders...saviors of the forest and of their fellow creatures. There's Tobin the pangolin, Dawn the fox, and Bismark the sugar glider. In the story, all the water in the animals’ habitat has disappeared so everyone is suffering and in danger of perishing. The friends must work together on a perilous, life or death journey to find out what’s happened. When they discover the solution to the mystery that’s “bugging” them...well, it’s quite a surprise to everyone.

The Nocturnals series lives in that perfect world where the stores are well-written, fun and enjoyable, yet there is also plenty of real knowledge in the book. Readers learn much about animal life, forests, and insects. While deepply immersed in the text, I can definitely hear a young student saying, with excited enthusiasm, “Awesome, I didn’t know those animals could do that!”

The Hidden Kingdom is entirely appropriate for the target audience and very appealing with talking animals who are cool, funny characters. Though I have not read the first three in the series, I can say with confidence they are all of the same style and quality so I’m sure any elementary school teacher out there would be happy to have these in his or her classroom. Or, if you know any young eager readers who are also big animal lovers, any book from The Nocturnals series would make a great summer reading gift.

Happy Reading!


THE NOCTURNALS SERIES TEACHER RESOURCES