Worms for Breakfast How to Feed a Zoo

Feeding time is one of the most popular events at zoos. It also prompts a smorgasbord of questions: what do different animals eat? How much food do they need to stay healthy? Where do zookeepers get all that chow? And what constitutes a special treat?

Worms for Breakfast answers all these questions and more in a cookbook-style primer packed with facts from experts at zoos and aquariums. Covering everything from regular animal nutrition to feeding babies to mimicking how animals hunt and eat in the wild, this book explores the eating habits of carnivores, omnivores, herbivores, and insectivores. Inside, you’ll also find real-life recipes from zoos around the world for meals like eucalyptus-leaf pesto, kelp tank goulash, and mealworm mush. Beware! You probably don’t want to eat any of it yourself.

Written in a plucky, conversational tone with delightfully wacky illustrations, a glossary, and tips for zoo animal care, this book is bound to appeal to picky readers.

Helaine Becker is an award–winning writer of children’s books with over 60 picture books, nonfiction, and novels to her name, including the best-selling A Porcupine in a Pine Tree. She also writes for children’s magazines and television. She lives in Toronto, Ontario.

Kathy Boake is an illustrator and fine artist whose work has appeared in magazines including InStyle, Seventeen, Toronto Life, Outside, Chirp, chickaDEE, and OWL. She has been honored by the Art Directors Club of Canada, the Soeicety of Graphic Designers of Canada, and the Western and National Magazine Awards Foundations, and has illustrated several books. She lives in White Rock, British Columbia.