Do Animals Fall in Love?

Best Middle-Grade Nature Books of 2021, Kirkus.

The birds and the bees, literally. A fully illustrated compendium of fascinating and astonishing facts about animal reproduction for the whole family.

Bats give birth upside down. Swifts can mate while plummeting through the air. Scorpions attract their partners with a romantic dance. Male humpback whales sing together for days to bring females from many miles away. Dolphin babies come out tail first.

From sex education expert Katharina von der Gathen, Do Animals Fall in Love? is a compendium of all the weird and wonderful ways the animal kingdom reproduces – courting rituals both elaborate and devious, extraordinary physiology, cleverly planned pregnancies, the most devoted fathers and the sweetest animal babies on Earth.

With frank and honest illustrations – some full frontal – there’s something to amaze on every page, making this an excellent resource for parents and teachers to explain puberty and sex education through the more neutral animal kingdom, to children age 6 and up.

Comic illustrations bring humour and contrast to the factual and frank text, exploring all the most fascinating and astonishing facts about animal reproduction, from seduction methods and anatomy to family life and animal babies, in a compendium for the whole family.

Structured from seduction and mating through family life and ending with a page of delightful animal babies, this is a topic that will guarantee to interest children and reads like a David Attenborough documentary on the page. Designed to be read alone or together with the family, this striking hardback compendium holds all the answers to questions children ask.

Shortlisted for the leading German children’s book prize and other awards.

“"Courtship, mating, birth, and child rearing are common across the animal world, but the details can be surprising. The German creators of Tell Me: What Children Really Want To Know About Bodies, Sex, and Emotions (2020) return with this collection of intriguing facts about animal reproduction, which might be termed a book of carnal knowledge for middle-grade and middle school readers. Sex-educator von der Gathen organizes her material into three major subjects: courting, mating, and babies. Subdivisions within each section group examples of the wide array of techniques adopted by different species. For example, seduction includes showy appearances, dances, attractive smells, songs, and battles with rivals. Each example describes the activities of a single species in a paragraph or two of exposition, delivered in a cheerful, informal tone, smoothly translated, and illustrated with an amusing cartoon of the animals described. Each section also includes pages of illustrated comparisons, with helpful labels. One set shows a variety of mating positions; another spotlights 'ingenious genitalia'; there are animal babies. Examples include both vertebrates and invertebrates. Readers can make human connections, but the writer doesn't. What she does do is to demonstrate the wonder of species reproduction as well as her respect for her audience with frankness and good humor. They will find it irresistible in tone and content. Full of fascinating answers to the question 'How do animals do it?'"--starred, Kirkus Reviews”

"What she [von der Gathen] does do is to demonstrate the wonder of species reproduction as well as her respect for her audience with frankness and good humor. They will find it irresistible in tone and content."

Starred review

"Readers will enjoy the informative yet sometimes really slyly humorous writing, and the great cartoon like realistic art."

Starred review

"This book provides fascinating answers while taking readers on a journey through the incredible animal kingdom in so doing. It’s definitely one to add to book collections be that at home, public library or school."

"Detailed, labeled, and often witty illustrations."

Katharina von der Gathen was born in 1972. She works in the area of sex education with children and adolescents from a wide range of backgrounds. She lives in Bonn with her husband and four children.

Anke Kuhl, born in 1970, is one of Germany’s leading children’s book illustrators, whose awards include the German Youth Literature Award in 2011. She lives in Frankfurt with her husband and two children.

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