Text Set

In my literature circle group we read How to Clean a Hippopotamus by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page. This book looks at the symbiosis in animals. It shows the relationships between animals and the unusual ways they help each other. From this book I explored other childrens books that also discusses symbiosis. I used the Teacher Resource Center, Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com to find other great books that talk about unlikely animal relationships. I used these resources to first search for How to Clean a Hippopotamus and then look at other suggested books. The books that I found are a wide range of genres. Some are nonfiction books like Weird Friends or fiction tales like A Symbiotic Tale and others are online articles like Odd Couples. All of these books and articles talk about the odd relationships between animals. These books extend the symbiotic relationships talked about in How to Clean a Hippopotamus by exploring not only different symbiotic relationships, but also the other kinds of relationships that different animal species can have with each other.

Title: Weird Friends: Unlikely Allies in the Animal Kingdom Citation: Arego, J. (2002). Weird friends: Unlikely allies in the animal kingdom. New York: Harcourt Children's Books. Summary: Weird Friends looks at the strange relationships between different animal species. It shows how even the smallest of animals help out the biggest and scariest animals. Grade Level: 3rd-4th

Title: A Symbiotic Tale Citation: Kavanaugh, M. (2009). A Symbiotic Tale. Charleston: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. Summary: This book looks at unique relationship between a lonely sea anemone and a clownfish. In this book a story of two animals that cooperate and work together to benefit each other is told. Grade Level: 3rd

Title: Odd Couples Citation: SarveLukasseck, F. (2006, January). Odd couples. National Geographic Explorer, 611. http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngexplorer/0601/articles/mainarticle.html. Summary: This article looks out different animals that pair up to survive. It looks at specifically the different kinds of jobs that different species may help each other with like cleaning, transportation, food and protection. Grade Level: 4th-5th

Title: Coral Reef Connections Citation: "Coral Reef Connections." Teachers' Domain. 26 Sep. 2003. Web. 9 Sep. 2012.http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/tdc02.sci.life.eco.coralreefconnections.

Summary: This is an interactive article that explores different relationships between animals in the coral reef. This talks about symbiotic relationships and extends to other types of relationships between animals living in community together. Grade Level: 5th

Title: Unlikely Friendships: 47 Remarkable Stories from the Animal Kingdom Citation: Holland, J. (2011). Unlikely friendships: 47 Remarkable Stories from the Animal Kingdom. New York: Workman Publishing Company. Summary: This book tells 47 individual stories of different odd pairing of animals. These stories tell how some species break the stereotypical relationship with each other to help each other survive. Grade Level: 5th