A Curious Collection of Wild Companions

Ages 8 to 14, Grades 3 to 9

Another fresh take on the animal kingdom from author and illustrator Sami Bayly: from the sloth and its friend the moth to the inseparable kinkajou and the balsa tree, a fully illustrated guide to companions across species

Heartwarming, surprising, and downright bizarre creature connections

Relationships can be complicated, and it’s no different in the wild. Meet 60 dynamic duos across the plant and animal kingdom—from “aww” to “eek”!

The Eltham copper butterfly and the Notoncus ant are BFFs for life. The ants lovingly raise the butterflies’ caterpillar babies, while feasting on the sweet substance the caterpillars produce. Everybody wins in this prime example of mutualism.

The pseudoscorpian is a total freeloader. When it wants to get around, it boards the back of the giant harlequin beetle, in a one-sided setup called commensalism. 

Parasitism is where things get spooky. Learn how the green-banded broodsac (a type of flatworm) first invades the eyestalk of the amber snail, then tricks it into getting eaten by a bird—inside which the broodsac will grow up. Yikes!

Award-winning author and illustrator Sami Bayly shows us a whole world of wild companions like these—many endangered—and reminds us that we're all inseparable.

About the Author

Sami Bayly is a natural history illustrator who loves all things weird and wonderful. She finds the beauty and importance of all animals regardless of their appearance. Her first book, A Curious Collection of Peculiar Creatures, won the Children’s Indie Book of the Year Award and the Australian Book Design Award for Younger Readers. It was a CBCA Honour Book and was shortlisted for an ABIA Book of the Year for Younger Children and longlisted for the ABA Booksellers’ Choice 2020 Book of the Year Awards. Her second book, A Curious Collection of Dangerous Creatures, was a CBCA Honour Book, an ABIA Book of the Year for Younger Children, won an Australian Book Design Award for Younger Readers, and was shortlisted for the Children’s Indie Book of the Year 2020.