Arctic Animals
best books for teaching polar animals

Arctic animals, aka polar animals, live FAR away, but that doesn't stop kids love for them! Cute little penguins, big blubbery walruses, a dolphin with a unicorn's horn... So many kid favorites in one very harsh, distant location!  When I teach arctic animals, it never ceases to amaze me how enraptured the kids are. It's like a cartoonist created these animals knowing exactly what pleases kids. As you teach about this climate, try to get kids to ponder life in such an extreme climate, including the adaptations and survival skills required.

Hopefully the following children's books will spark an interest and help kids want to learn more about polar / arctic animals and their fascinating, unique habitat.  Some of these books are informational / non-fiction books packed with facts and details; others are simply books set in the polar region or about polar animals.  (We are still working on reviews for a lot of these books. Please check back often.

best books on arctic animals

Here is Antarctica
by Madeline Dunphy
K - 3rd grade


A Penguin Story
by Antoinette Portis
K - 3rd grade


Over in the Arctic
by Marianne Berkes
Preschool-1st grade


Survival at
40 Below

2nd -5th grade


Puffins Climb, Penguins Rhyme
by Bruce McMillan
Preschool-1st grade



Ice Is Nice!
All About the North
and South Poles

Preschool-3rd grade


In Arctic Waters
by Laura Crawford
Preschool-3rd grade


If You Were
a Penguin

by Florence Minor
Preschool-3rd grade



Polar Animals
(Scholastic Reader)
by Wade Cooper
Preschool-3rd grade


Way Up in
the Arctic

by Jennifer Ward
Preschool-3rd grade



A Walk in
the Tundra

by Rebecca Johnson
3rd - 6th grade


The Emperor's Egg
by Martin Jenkins
K - 2nd grade


Three Snow
Bears

by Jan Brett
Preschool-3rd grade


Emperor Lays
an Egg

1st - 3rd grade


Polar Brrr's Big Adventure
by Bruce Lansky
Preschool-1st grade



One Small Square: Arctic Tundra
by Donald Silver
1st grade +


Nothing Like
a Puffin

by Sue Soltis
Preschool-1st grade


My Little
Polar Bear

by Claudia Rueda
K - 1st grade


Nat.Geographic Readers: Penguins
K - 2nd grade


Nat.Geographic Readers:
Polar Bears

K - 2nd grade



Magic Tree House Eve of the Emperor Penguin
+ facts companion book

1st - 4th grade


Magic Tree House Polar Bears Past Bedtime
+ facts companion book

1st - 4th grade


Tacky the Penguin
+ other series books
by Helen Lester
K - 2nd grade