Wild Summer Week Six: Armadillos
Welcome to Week Six of our Summer Challenge, a free reading challenge all about pairing books with summer fun! If you’re new here, please jump right in! We are sharing book recommendations, discussion starters, activity ideas, and more now through August 11. Plus, we’re doing a giveaway at the end of the summer. Sign up today to be eligible to win!
This week’s guest is one of my favorite critters—Armadillo! I love seeing the armadillos at my local zoo, especially the adorable three-banded armadillo. So I’m excited to introduce this week’s guest. Take it away, Armadillo!
Hello, all you lovely readers. I am pleased as punched to be here today for your Wild Summer Challenge to help you learn more about armadillos1 and share some of my ideas for summer fun! I love summer! Summer is the BEST because, in case you didn’t know, armadillos can’t tolerate cold weather. We don’t have enough fur!
Armadillo is Spanish for “little armored one.” Our armor is made of tough, hard skin, divided into sections by bands that make it more flexible. We have a reputation for rolling into a ball when we’re threatened, but the sad truth is that only one type of armadillo can do that—the three banded armadillo. It’s a pretty neat trick, and I wish I could do it! There are 20 different kinds of armadillos. The one you might be most familiar with, especially if you live in Texas or another southern state in the U.S., is the nine-banded armadillo, the only armadillo to live in North America. Armadillos are omnivores, which means they eat plants and animals. Worms are our favorite. Yum! The pink fairy armadillo is the smallest (and maybe the weirdest) of the armadillos. You can find out more about the pink fairy armadillo here. To learn even more about armadillos, visit your local library and look for some great books. Here are some titles to get you started!
Read: Any book about armadillos, like some of these!
Board book: But Not the Armadillo by Sandra Boynton. This is a fun and silly book, like many of Sandra Boynton’s books are. Join the armadillo on his little journey and see who he meets along the way.
Willow the Armadillo by Marilou Reeder, iIllustrated by Dave Mottram. Willow loves picture books–so much so that she wants to be the hero in one! After studying at Picture Book Academy, she signs up for many auditions, but they all lead to rejections. Trying to find peace, she heads to the library, but finds chaos. However, it’s here that Willow discovers something better than being a hero.
Grab Your Pillow Armadillo by Kevin and Haily Meyers, illustrated by Haily Meyers. This board book is a cute bedtime story with multiple animals headed off to bed. The rhyming gives it a playful, lullaby tone. Kids will love flipping the large flaps to reveal the pictures.
Armadillo Rodeo by Jan Brett. Set in the Texas countryside with rootin’ tootin’ language, Jan Brett weaves a tale about Bo the Armadillo taking off after what he thinks is a red armadillo…but a wild adventure reminds Bo that coming home is pretty fantastic.
Armadillos by Kari Schuetz. This Backyard Wildlife book is perfect for young readers who are beginning learning about armadillos. With minimal text on each page, yet still chocked full of information, this book is full of fun and facts! For example, did you know armadillos can jump 4 feet?
Armadillo Antics by Bill Martin Jr. and Michael Sampson. Illustrated by Nathalie Beauvois. You will love the beautiful artwork that is incorporated into this rhyming, fun-to-read text about armadillos. It even has fun facts about armadillos on the last page.
Armadillo Trail: The Northward Journey of the Armadillo by Stephen R. Swinburne, illustrated by Bruce Hiscock. This is a lovely story that begins with the birth of four armadillos and follows them as they grow and learn from their mother on a journey ever northward. You can learn a lot of neat facts about armadillos from this book!
The Armadillo Who Came for Dinner by Steve Smallman, illustrated by Joelle Dreidemy. This book is about an armadillo who accidentally rolls into a picnic. His new friends invite him to stay, even though his rolling can be a little out of control. This is a funny story about friendship!
Ape and Armadillo Take Over the World by James Sturm. This book is an easy reader especially for kids who love comics. It’s like a mini graphic novel. It’s a story about two friends, Ape and Armadillo, working through their disagreements while planning to take over the world. Or, at least, pretending too. If you like comics or graphic novels, give this one a try!
Armadilly Chili by Helen Ketteman, illustrated by Will Terry. A retelling of the classic tale The Little Red Hen. This book has a snip-snappy voice and a slightly different ending that is sure to make you feel all warm and cozy!
Middle Grade: Armadillo and Hare by Jeremy Strong, illustrated by Rebecca Bagley. If you’re looking for facts about armadillos (or hares), this is definitely not the book for you! But if you’re into stories about friendship with a little nonsense and whimsy mixed in, you’ll enjoy this book! It reads like a collection of stories rather than chapters, but it’s all tied together in the last chapters to give it a satisfying ending. A good low pressure read that reminds me a bit of Frog and Toad.
Note: Some links will take you to the Read, Discuss, Do bookshop.org storefront. Purchasing a book from the storefront will support independent bookstores and help maintain Read, Discuss, Do at no additional cost to you.
Discuss:
Have you ever seen an armadillo? What kind of armadillo was it?
What is the most interesting fact about armadillos?
What is your favorite armadillo book?
If you had a pet armadillo, what would you name it?
Do armadillos live near you?
Do: Try one of these armadillo-inspired activities
Eat worms! Not real ones, of course. Here’s a recipe for “Mud and Worms” using cookies, pudding, and gummy worms.
Try rolling into a ball like a three-banded armadillo. Can you roll across a room or the lawn?
Going for a swim? Try floating across the pool like an armadillo! To cross a lake or a river, an armadillo can float at the surface or sink to the bottom and walk across.
Feeling crafty? Here’s a cute paper plate armadillo craft for your little artisans.
Listen to some armadillo tunes!
The Armadillo Song - EduFam
Armadillo Song - Russell Thornberry
Print and color this week’s coloring page!
Thank you, Armadillo, for sharing your ideas and wisdom with us!
We hope you are enjoying our Wild Summer so far! If you share about your experiences with the Summer Challenge on social media, use the hashtag #RDDSummerChallenge2025 so we can see it. You can also tag us or message us on Instagram, leave a comment on this post, or reply to this email. We’d love to know about how you are pairing books with summer fun!
Also, don’t forget to sign up to be eligible for the giveaway at the end of the summer!
Source: Awesome Armored Armadillos by Bethany Baxter