Meet the Mini-Mammals
A Night at the Natural History Museum
by Melissa Stewart
illustrated by Brian Lies
Beach Lane / Simon & Schuster, 2025
for ages 5–9
ISBN 978–1‑66594–7‑169
Purchase this book at your local independent bookseller or Amazon.com.
Big mammals like elephants, hippos, and giraffes get a lot of press, but what about the little critters? From pint-sized flying squirrels to itty bitty mouse lemurs, learn all about the mini-est mammals from around the world, depicted at their real-life size. Delightful illustrations and lively text perfect for read alouds combine in this adorable and informative picture book from Sibert Honoree Melissa Stewart and Caldecott Honoree Brian Lies.
Honors and Awards
- Junior Library Guild Selection
Reviews
“Teachers and librarians will be able to use this as a mentor text for research projects; young readers and their families will love poring over the pictures and telling friends about the new facts they’ve learned. A must-have for any elementary library.” (School Library Journal, starred review)
“The clever concept will easily appeal to a wide variety of readers, charming younger ones with remarkably lifelike illustrations and roping in an older audience with fun facts and amusing antics. Appropriately tiny text boxes add humorous context, and even animal experts will surely find a new favorite. An immensely appealing introduction that entertains as well as it educates.” (Booklist)
“The guiding premise of this whimsical walk on the wild side is simple: what is ‘the mini-est mammal of all?’ To answer that question, readers first meet a rather gracious weasel who volunteers to take youngsters through a series of spreads that very much replicate the structure of a stroll through a museum … It’s hard to deny the teeny-tiny cuteness that is on display … There’s plenty of potential curriculum use here, and the browsable format allows kids to dip in and out of the book, keying on whatever cool details they find the most fascinating.” (The Bulletin)
“A surefire hit for budding wildlife biologists … chock-full of riveting information. [The text] makes adept use of humor and alliteration as the furry narrator wrangles the subjects into ranked order, from the (relatively) largest to the very tiniest … Each spread depicts a creature gazing out earnestly from a wooden picture frame; the facing page shows the mammal in its natural habitat.” (Kirkus Review)
“Meticulously painted acrylic and colored pencil spreads by Caldecott Honoree Lies give outsize visual impact to this look at tiny mammals. [The text presents] a lively survey, each spread of which views a mini-mammal in close-up on the verso with a recto-side view of the animal in its habitat …. at last, readers arrive at the smallest mammal of all (“A Kitti’s hog-nosed bat weighs a little less than four mini marshmallows”). Alongside the gallery of dramatic close-ups, factoid-filled text provides a jumping-off place for conversations about survival and habitat.” (Publishers Weekly)
Behind the Book
“In 2019, I was struggling to come up with a topic for a new book, so I asked my husband, Gerard, what he thought I should write about. He gave a one-word answer: “Munchkins!”
That made me laugh. Munchkins, or mini-munchkins, is a collective name we use for our five nieces and nephews — Iris, Colin, Emile, Claire, and Caroline.
In the past, I’ve written books inspired by all of them, so Gerard’s answer was just a joke. But it made me think. The world is full of animals that are small and adorable, and kids would probably like to know more about them.
Then I wondered … how would I choose animals to include? Since I’m a mammal (and so are my young readers), that seemed like the obvious choice. I decided to countdown twenty adorable mammals smaller than the width of my hand — 8.25 inches. Then I dug into the research.
The final book is a whole lot different from my initial vision, but it wouldn’t exist without that smart-alecky suggestion from my husband.”
by Melissa Stewart
illustrated by Brian Lies
Beach Lane / Simon & Schuster, 2025
for ages 5–9
ISBN 978–1‑66594–7‑169
Purchase this book at your local independent bookseller or Amazon.com.
Book Extensions
VIDEO: THE AUTHOR-ILLUSTRATOR RELATIONSHIP