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From an octopus’ “stony villa” to a satin bowerbird’s “blue pavilion,” Simler takes young readers on a poetic, fanciful tour of animal homes.

Architectural drawings of human habitations on the endpapers set the tone for the gentle anthropomorphization of Simler’s descriptions. Spread by spread, the animals describe their dwellings in short poems, translated by Lal from the original French. “I live in the vertical plane,” declares the cross orbweaver spider, “in a complex structure / made from the strongest / and most elastic material there is.” Simler’s trademark style of digitally finished hair’s-breadth strokes of colored pencil creates a “lace citadel” that occupies two-thirds of the spread, tiny breaks in the white lines allowing the web’s strands to glimmer against a black background. The spider’s delicate hairs beg readers to touch them. Simler introduces 27 animal abodes in all, from every continent except Antarctica, most of them rarely depicted in books for young readers. Refreshingly, only two (the golden eagle and the Sumatran orangutan) represent charismatic megafauna. Readers will meet Australia’s cathedral termites, for instance, which build a “clay skyscraper,” and the Kalahari’s sociable weaver, which inhabits a “straw apartment complex,” a tree-enveloping nest that holds 500 birds. Backmatter includes a short prose paragraph about each animal, a glossary, and recommended resources.

Standing out in beauty and breadth, a lyrical addition to the animal-homes shelf.