Orangutan Hats and Other Tools Animals Use, written by Richard Haynes and illustrated by Stephanie Laberis. Candlewick Press. 2021. $23.99 ages 9 and up

"To dig out those pieces stuck between 
its teeth, a macaque uses twigs, long
coconut fibers, or even pieces of its own
hair to dislodge the food. 

Female macaques floss slowly in order 
to show their young how it's done. Up,
down, up, down - and out flies a seed 
or a little chunk of food."

If you want middle graders to maintain reading interest, and follow up with further research - and if they love learning about animals - a book like this will go a long way toward achieving that goal for them. Information provided in this book about twenty different animals and how they use tools to get their business done is enough to pique further interest. I guarantee it will also have numerous readers aching to learn more. That was the goal, right? 

The table of contents provides an excellent start for the reading. Each of the six chapters deal with tools that have specific purposes: neat and clean; health and healing; defense; hunting, harvesting and eating; comfort, and joy. An invitation, to be sure. In back matter, the author offers a conclusion, a glossary, a bibliography, and an index.  

Let's start with a world map. Six of the seven continents (not Antarctica) are shown, and the twenty animals included are placed where they can be found in the world. The animals will be familiar for many of the book's readers: bald eagle, crow, green heron, sea otter, Florida harvester ant, American bison, coconut octopus, Galapagos woodpecker finch, white-face capuchin, bearded capuchin, red colobus, African elephant, black-and-white colobus, boxer crab, bottlenose dolphin, orangutan, long-tailed macaque, olive baboon, long-tailed tailorbird, and white stork. Pick a place, and pick an animal. Check the index to find the correct page ... and you are off on a journey of discovery. 

Dolls - page 25 ... 

"Young female orangutans in particular, 
in Borneo and Sumatra, have been observed
taking small bundles of leaves to bed with them. 
They hold and cuddle these bundles through 
the night, as a human child might do with
a doll. This behavior might very well be 
practice for the day when they have little 
orangutans of their own." 

Digital full-page and spot images add realistic scenes and settings for the animals presented. Pertinent paragraphs explain the unique ways in which the tools are used. Readers will be entertained and intrigued by the ways animals have adapted to find the tools they need for an easier existence. Close observation and determined research have led to many amazing discoveries.What an awesome book this is for home and classroom. What ingenious inventors these animals have proven to be!