From a sea turtle’s portable shell to the “Skyscrapers of Spit and Sand” built by some termites, or the elaborate nests of titmice and weaver birds, Nicholson surveys the astonishing range of structures that animals construct as temporary or permanent homes. Though he offers up commentary Eyewitness-style, in scattered paragraphs and captions, children will likely learn more from the array of cutaways, schematics and partially constructed views in his paint and colored-pencil pictures. Consider this import a companion or alternative to Bert Kitchen’s more striking And So They Build (1993) or Barbara Taylor’s photographic survey, Animal Homes (1996). (Picture book/nonfiction. 7-9)
