🐞 Backyard Creature Jobs – A Funny Illustrated Nature Guide for Kids

🐞 Backyard Creature Jobs – A Funny Illustrated Nature Guide for Kids

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🐞 Backyard Creature Jobs – A Funny Illustrated Nature Guide for Kids

🐞 Backyard Creature Jobs – A Funny Illustrated Nature Guide for Kids

Regular price $29.99
Regular price $29.99 Sale price $69.99
SAVE 57% Sold out
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Reader reviews

4.8 Based on 288 global ratings
Reader photo from Leslie Dougherty’s review

Fascinating facts presented in fun format

As a retired science teacher and grandmother I am always looking for something that brings out the fun in learning, and this book certainly has the potential. My 8 year old granddaughter will love creating these scenes with play dough and the 9 year old may enjoy writing puppet shows about these creatures because of the way the authors have portrayed them. What a great tool to begin a scavenger hunt in the backyard looking for the animals and spending quality family time together! I found myself as an adult looking up additional facts about these bugs to satisfy my own curiosity. The Seek and Find and bug jokes are great touches!

Leslie DoughertyVerified PurchasePaperback · Jun 2026
Reader photo from bobbi b goldstein’s review

A wonderful book with fantastic illustrations!

What a wonderful book! Illustrations are wonderful! Can’t wait to give to my two granddaughters, ages 4 and 6-1/2!!! They are going to absolutely LOVE it!

bobbi b goldsteinVerified PurchasePaperback · Aug 2026
Reader photo from Kay’s review

Great illustrated field guide to your backyard

Interesting facts about backyard critters that inspire wonder in children and grown-ups alike! Great illustrations, as well, accompanied by cute, clever commentary! My 5-year-old grandchild and I loved it!!

KayPaperback · Aug 2026
Reader photo from Mhuggs’s review

Incredible — buy them all!

These books are incredible. The illustrations are beautiful and so fun to look at. The ideas for each creature’s roles are so clever it makes me chuckle. I plan to give these as gifts for most of the kids in my life, they are that universal. I wouldn’t even say there is an age range — they are fun for 7–100. The only reason I’m not giving a 5th star is the choice in print type. I feel like these books should be printed in glossy pages with a hardcover.

MhuggsVerified PurchasePaperback · Jul 2026
Reader photo from yvonne Shauger’s review

Backyard creatures

Excellent book. I reviewed it and can’t wait to give it to my grandson. I would highly recommend this to any young explorer. It would make a great birthday or Christmas gift. The pages are colorful and the print is large.

yvonne ShaugerVerified PurchasePaperback · Jul 2026

Beautiful book

Lovely illustrations! Fun facts! My grandchildren loved this book over and over!

Roberta FrancisPaperback · Aug 2026

Loved! Great for homeschooling

My kids loved this and a great addition to our homeschool library!

Erika BurhansKindle · Jul 2026

Ordered the whole series

My grandchildren loved this book! I ordered the other two books in the series…Sea Creatures and Savannah Creatures.

staciehVerified PurchasePaperback · Aug 2026

Good for little ones

Fun book for children. Great illustrations; and “jokes,” as my granddaughter said.

Shar TomVerified PurchasePaperback · Aug 2026

Great book!!!

The book Secret Jobs of Backyard Creatures is a very cute and interesting book. Got it for my 12 year old grandson and he loves it. I highly recommend it.

SassyVerified PurchasePaperback · Jul 2026

Great purchase

My grandkids loved it!

Steven RatzekVerified PurchasePaperback · Aug 2026

An excellent learning tool

This is an excellent learning tool.

Patina WilliamsPaperback · Aug 2026
Child reading The Secret Jobs of Backyard Creatures on the lawn 🔍 Can you spot the ladybird?

For the kid who's “bored” by 4pm

There's a whole workforce outside your door — and nobody told your kid

The garden path. The compost heap. That dark patch under the porch. All of it fully staffed — foreman beetles, air-traffic bees, a Chief Soil Restructuring Officer clocking in under the lawn. Open to any page and the backyard stops being boring. It becomes the funniest, most fascinating place on earth.

↓ Meet the seven departments below

Child pointing at a hidden object inside the illustrated book 🔍 3 objects hidden on every page

A field guide in disguise

They think it's a joke book. It's a biology lesson.

Every double-page spread hides three objects to find, a riddle to crack, and one creature's ridiculous job title. Kids race to spot the hidden objects. They laugh at the field notes. And somewhere in the middle — without ever noticing — they learn what a worm actually does all day. No textbook language. Just kid-friendly writing and golden-age watercolour art that pulls them in before they've read a word.

50 creatures · 125 full-colour pages · 3 hidden objects per spread

Child unwrapping the book as a birthday gift

The gift that beats a screen

When you don't know what to gift, give them the backyard

Birthdays, holidays, “just because” — this is the gift that gets opened, read at the dinner table, and quoted back at you for weeks. Large format, built to be dipped into: every creature is self-contained, so there's no losing your place and no pressure to finish. One book, hours away from a screen.

🎁 Most parents order two — one to keep, one to gift

Take a peek inside

Real pages from our books - tap any image to zoom in.

Backyard Creatures

50 secret jobs happening in your garden

Ocean Creatures

50 secret jobs happening in ocean

Savannah Creatures

50 secret jobs happening in savannah

Why it works

Real nature, organised like a workplace comedy

Fifty creatures across seven departments — because “ecosystem” is a boring word, but “Compost & Waste Management, night shift” is hilarious. And what makes them laugh is what they remember.

FROM THE BOOK

Job title: Chief Soil Restructuring Officer. Department: Underground Works. Status: probably beneath your feet right now.

🌅

Dawn Patrol

The early risers who open the garden while your kid is still asleep.

🐝

Pollination & Air Traffic

The flight crews keeping every flower in business.

🪲

Underground Works

The engineers restructuring the soil beneath your feet.

🍂

Compost & Waste Management

The clean-up crew that lets nothing go to waste.

🐞

Pest Control & Security

The garden's quiet defence force, on duty around the clock.

🕸

Construction & Engineering

Web-spinners, nest-builders and master architects.

🌙

Midnight Operations

The night shift your kid never knew existed.

📖

…and 50 staff to meet

Every creature gets a job title, field notes, and a specimen card.

50 creatures, 7 departments, 1 backyard
Claire Monroe, author

From the author

Written by a mum who had to make nature compete with a tablet

Claire Monroe homeschools two nature-obsessed kids — which means every page of this book was field-tested on the toughest audience there is. Her rule: if it doesn't make her kids laugh, look up, or run outside to check for themselves, it doesn't go in.

The Secret Jobs of Backyard Creatures is Book 1 of the Secret Animal Jobs series — the ocean edition is already a family favourite.

Mum of 2Homeschooling family
Book 1 of 2Secret Animal Jobs series
4.8★Reader rating

Good to know

Frequently asked questions

Is this a textbook?
No — and that's the point. There's no textbook language anywhere. It's real, accurate nature (how decomposing, pollinating and soil engineering actually work) delivered through job titles, field notes, riddles and jokes. Kids remember it because it made them laugh.
What age is it really for?
The sweet spot is 6–10. Younger kids (from about 5) love it as a read-aloud and seek-and-find; confident readers from about 7 devour it independently. Parents regularly report reading ahead after bedtime.
My child won't sit still for long books.
This one is designed to be dipped into. Every creature is a self-contained two-page spread — start anywhere, stop anywhere. And the three hidden objects on each page give restless kids something to hunt while they read.
Will my kid actually learn anything?
Yes — the book is honest about how nature works. Composting, pollination, soil aeration, night-time garden life — all real, all accurate, each creature tagged with its true scientific name on its specimen card. The comedy is just the delivery system.
How big is the book?
125 pages in a large 8.5" × 11" full-colour format — big enough for two kids to look at one spread together, which happens a lot.
Is this a good gift?
It's the birthday gift that doesn't get re-gifted — which is why our Buy Two bundle (one for home, one to gift) is the most popular option, and it comes with free printable extras.
How long does shipping take?
Orders are dispatched within 48 hours with free tracked shipping. Delivery estimates are shown at checkout for your region.
What's your return policy?
A 60-day money-back guarantee. If the book doesn't earn its place on your shelf, contact us and we'll make it right.