Genius Ears: A Curious Animal Compendium

Ages 6 to 12, Grades 1 to 4

From the creators of Genius Noses comes an illustrated collection of animal ears and their amazing functions. Early STEM has never been more fun in this fact-filled book featuring everything kids ever wanted to know about animal ears around the world!

Ears can do much more than just pick up sound waves. In the animal kingdom, ears are sometimes an animal’s strongest asset! For example, a fleeing black-tailed jackrabbit uses the position of its ears to help it confuse its pursuers and get away from danger. Some animals can close their ears to protect their bodies or use them to cool down or stay warm. Whether long, tuft, or goblin, ears can tell a lot about animals and their habits and habitats.

Which animal has the longest ears relative to its size? Which animal communicates through surprisingly high-pitched chirping sounds? And which animal can pinpoint the location of its prey using only its ears? Readers will find out all this and much more in this entertaining collection filled with unique and unusual facts.

About the Author

Lena Anlauf was born in the Ruhr region of Germany. She studied book studies and philosophy in Mainz and Leiden and completed a further education course on pedagogy of literacy and literature as well as a remote course on children’s and young adult literature at the STUBE in Vienna. Today she lives in Marburg, works as editorial director at the kunstanstifter verlag, researches historical picture books, writes and designs her own book projects, and puts on readings and workshops for children. Genius Noses was her children’s book debut.

Vitali Konstantinov was born in Ukraine. As a child he saw the desman at the natural history museum and was fascinated. Vitali studied architecture, graphic art, painting, and art history, and has taught illustration courses at universities in several countries as well as numerous workshops for children. His work has been exhibited extensively, has received many prizes, and has been published in forty different countries. Most recently he was nominated for the Deutsche Jugendliteraturpreis. Today Vitali works as a freelance illustrator and author and lives in Marburg. He drew the illustrations for Genius Noses and Genius Ears with drawing ink and colored pencil on watercolor paper.

Marshall Yarbrough is a writer, translator, and musician. He has translated works by Ulla Lenze, Norman Ohler, and Wolf Wondratschek, among other authors. He lives in New York City.