Atlas Obscura: Wild Life: An Explorer's Guide to the World's Living Wonders Hardcover – September 17, 2024

This book is an incredible guide to the high weirdness of our natural world. It's so well written and deeply reported. You can feel the delight and excitement in each factoid and chapter. Love the illustrations, photos, and visuals, too. They really help animate what you're reading and learning. 10/10 would recommend this book as a gift or just for yourself.

Have been a fan of Cara Giaimo’s science writing for years and am so happy to finally get a chance to read this beautiful book! Thanks Atlas Obscura!

There are many little know facts about different species of wildlife. What I like is that these snippets are quick to read and are easy to read

From the youngest to the oldest in our family, everyone enjoyed the colorful and charming way this book presents interesting facts from around the world. The book itself has a decent heft, but it never felt unwieldy (like carrying around an encyclopedia). The crisp pages felt like they were of higher quality (greater thickness) than pages in hardcover novels, but they also had a matte finish rather than the smooth glossy paper of traditional reference books. The colors, pictures, and illustrations are lovely and complement each other well. Rather than just plain-old white pages, different pages have different background colors to add some variety. The print, while small, is very legible, and I had little difficulty reading this to a younger audience. In terms of content, everything was nicely organized into 7 main sections based on ecosystem types. These sections are further separated into geographic locations. This made reading through each page more enjoyable as it was like exploring and touring different areas of the world. The book primarily covers flora and fauna, but it also provides background information in-between. I’m not sure which age level this book is written for, but the writing and content both feel accessible to upper elementary students (like 4th graders). With an even younger audience, I had to read the content and provide some additional narration and explanations. Some of the writing also has a bit of humor such as: “Some birds just want to watch the world burn.” With a tagline like that, who wouldn’t want to learn more.Overall, this is a well-written book presented with lovely art and pictures. So far, we have greatly enjoyed reading this book, and we will continue our journey through what it offers.

I'm impressed with the amount of unique info in this hardcover book. I've heard about a lot of different species of wildlife over the years, but this book had many plants and animals I never heard of. Even when it was something I've seen before, this book had a fact or two about it I never knew about. It's written in a quippy and entertaining tone rather than a plain textbook, and includes many images and illustrations. It also includes interesting facts related to an animal or plant in relation to a culture or folklore. My only complaint is that the print is small, so for older folk like myself, it's straining to read. I also wish the pictures were a bit bigger.

This book, like much of the "Atlas Obscura" ... well, whatever it is. Brand? I guess?... like much of the "Atlas Obscura" world this book is a delight. Interesting stories, attractive structure, solid weight and feel (those last two are of course not the most important part of a book), and overall a worthwhile addition to your shelf.For that matter, who knew there were "moon trees", i.e. trees planted from seeds that had gone to space? Or that those trees had been "lost"? (Thanks Uncle Sam!) or that they've started a second round of moon trees?Again, a great book. Highly recommended.

I loved the other Atlas Obscura books that this is another great edition. The book is well researched and full of new facts that kept me learning new things on every page. The layout is easy to read and full of illustrations and photos that compliment the entries. This is a great addition for any nature/animal enthusiast, filled with hours of discovery that you will keep coming back too. I can't wait to have my own addition to bookmark all my favorites and share new facts with friends.

What a great book! High quality print and vivid colors on thick paper. The book is heavy and full of interesting, educational content. It’s a great option as a coffee table book that anyone can pick up and glance at however many pages to learn something, or start a topic. It’s soooo good I want to give it ten stars! It has over 450 pages of amazing content. I just love it!

I've been reading a page a day and am perpetually fascinated with everything in this book. Sometimes we'll also grab it, turn to a random page, and say "yeah, but have you heard about..." and then burst out laughing as we learn about some whacky new creature together.