Tiny Creatures: The World of Microbes by Nicola Davies Review by Andrea Vollmer

This book is a wonderful introduction to microbes for young readers! Written by Welsh zoologist Nicola Davies, Tiny Creatures begins by giving readers a quick lesson on the diminutive size of microbes. She uses easy descriptions and size comparisons, like how a single drop of seawater can contain twenty million microbes, and how that is about the same number of people who live in New York State. And how a teaspoon of soil has about the same number of microbes as people in India—about a billion!

Davies goes on to describe where microbes live—inside rocks, in the back of your fridge, in you!—mixing microbe basics and fascinating facts along the way. She reveals the many sizes, shapes, and colors that microbes display, as well as how they eat without mouths and why you can’t see microbe bite marks (hint…the things they eat change slowly). Davies also does a wonderful job explaining how microbes split, and the big and little consequences that we can see for ourselves—milk turns into yogurt, rocks turn to soil, how we may get sick from microbes called germs, and that microbes make snowflakes grow! Readers will delight in learning that microbes are the best recyclers of all.

Tiny Creatures is an excellent choice for a budding scientist, or any other child or adult who wants to know more about how the world works. Davies takes a process we cannot immediately see with our eyes and makes it visible, all with the support of wonderful, vintage-feeling illustrations by Emily Sutton. This is a great addition to any classroom!