Earth's Smallest Superheroes (Real-Life Reads)

This fascinating title is a celebration of the chubby, eight-legged, moss-dwelling, microscopic creatures called tardigrades. If you've never heard of tardigrades (also known as moss piglets), prepare to be amazed by their superhero survival skills! Using fantastic photos, 3D artwork, and scanning electron microscope (SEM) imagery, enter the world of the tardigrade and learn how scientists are studying these bizarre superheroes to learn more about the origins of life on Earth and how their survival skills could be used in human medicine. • Learn all about the everyday lives of tardigrades • Discover how they can be dried out and still survive for years! • See how they have been frozen and boiled by scientists-and survived! • And be wowed by their journey into space, where they lived without air and with extreme levels of radiation on the outside of a spacecraft-and (you guessed it) survived!

Packed with science, this book dives into the underwater world of plankton. Just because we can't see them doesn't mean these microscopic ocean superheroes aren't essential for life on Earth. • Meet some weird and wonderful species of zooplankton and phytoplankton • See how many marine animals begin their life cycles as tiny zooplankton • Learn how plankton are essential to all marine ecosystems and food webs • And discover how plankton make oxygen and take harmful carbon dioxide gas from the air Using fantastic photos, 3D artwork, and scanning electron microscope (SEM) imagery, this book lets kids explore the complicated, fascinating, and incredible worlds of these tiny superhero life forms.

Packed with science, this book peers into the microscopic world of microbes. Meet the superhero microbes that make our lives possible and the anti-heroes that cause trouble in our world and can do us harm. • Meet some weird and wonderful species of bacteria, viruses, and fungi • Learn how microbes are essential to habitats and ecosystems everywhere • Investigate the habitat that's home to billions of microbes-your body! • And discover how microbes are helping our planet, from "eating" unwanted plastic waste to fighting climate change Using fantastic photos, 3D artwork, and scanning electron microscope (SEM) imagery, this book lets kids explore the complicated, gross, fascinating, and incredible worlds of these influential but unseen superhero life forms.

Packed with science, this title is a celebration of these striped, fuzzy, and busy insect superheroes that will introduce readers to the fascinating and complicated lives of bees. Using stunning photos, 3D artwork, and microscope imagery, peer into the hidden worlds of honeybees, bumblebees, and solitary bees. These tiny creatures may be small, but without these buzzing superheroes, humans could not exist on Earth. • Meet some VERY unusual bee species • Discover how bees help pollinate many of the food plants that humans rely on • Go on a foraging flight with a bee and see up close how she gathers nectar and then turns it into honey • See inside a bees' nest and learn about bee life cycles • Learn how bees are essential to habitats and ecosystems everywhere • And find out why Earth's bees are in trouble and what we can all do to help them A high-interest, nonfiction read for fans of wildlife and factual books, with lots of fun and some cool superhero references.