Jennifer Mckerley - Amazing Armadillos

With grateful acknowledgment to Lisa Bradley of the Museum of Texas Tech University for her time and expertise in reviewing this book. Photo credit: Simpsons Glyptodont (Glyptotherium floridanum) carapace and tail armor courtesy of the Texas Natural Science Center, the University of Texas at Austin Text copyright 2009 by Jennifer Guess McKerley
Illustrations copyright 2009 by Paul Mirocha All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Random House Childrens Books, a division of Random House LLC, a Penguin Random House Company, New York. Step into Reading, Random House, and the Random House colophon are registered trademarks of Random House LLC. Visit us on the Web!
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RHTeachersLibrarians.com Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
McKerley, Jennifer Guess.
Amazing armadillos / by Jennifer Guess McKerley ; illustrated by Paul Mirocha. cm.
ISBN 978-0-375-84352-5 (trade) ISBN 978-0-375-94352-2 (lib. bdg.) eBook ISBN 978-0-553-53496-2
1. bdg.) eBook ISBN 978-0-553-53496-2
1.

ArmadillosJuvenile literature. I. Mirocha, Paul, ill. II. Title.
QL737.E23M35 2009
599.312dc22 2008035184 This book has been officially leveled by using the F&P Text Level Gradient Leveling System. v3.1 For my amazing husband, BillJ.G.M.
For Stina, who shares my burrowP.M.

The armadillo sneaks out to hunt on a summer night. (Say ar-muh-DIH-loh.) Her walk is slow and clumsy. She stands up on her back legs to listen and sniff the air. She stands up on her back legs to listen and sniff the air.

Uh-oh! She smells danger. A bobcat is on the prowl. The armadillo knows what to do. Like a digging machine, she rips the ground with her claws. Quickly she disappears inside the hole. The bobcat finally gives up.

Thats good for the armadillo. All that digging has made her hungry. The armadillo grunts and hunts with her nose in the dirt. Armadillos do not see well. So she uses her sharp senses of smell and hearing to find food. Tonight, she picks up the scent of a beetle.

Yum! She is so hungry she doesnt notice a man waiting to chase her away. People get mad when armadillos make holes in their yards. They also say armadillos stink. The surprised armadillo squeals. She leaps straight up three feet in the air. With a dog close behind, she runs in a zigzag trail. With a dog close behind, she runs in a zigzag trail.

She dashes inside a prickly bush. Ouch! The dog backs away from the thorns. But why doesnt the armadillo feel the spikes? She is protected by a shell from the tip of her tail to her nose. Armadillo means little armored one in Spanish. The armor is made of thin bony plates covered with tough skin. In the center are nine narrow bands.

The skin feels like stiff leather. The armadillo tucks her head into her shell. Now her eyes are safe. When she pulls her feet in, her armor lowers to the ground. Although the armor over her shoulders and bottom is solid, the bands in the middle move. She is a nine-banded armadillo the only kind of armadillo that lives wild in the United States. She is a nine-banded armadillo the only kind of armadillo that lives wild in the United States.

She is the size of a house cat.