My Backyard Jungle: The Adventures of an Urban Wildlife Lover Who Turned His Yard into Habitat and Learned To Live with It

Barilla (creative nonfiction & environmental writing, Univ. of South Carolina) takes readers on his personal journey to explore human and animal relationships in shared habitats around the world. To begin with, he had his own property in Columbia, SC, certified by the National Wildlife Federation as a wildlife habitat. In a short introduction, he discusses his motivation, referring to a few internal debates about the decision. He invites readers to contemplate a brief fact he includes at the start of each chapter before they embark on the upcoming pages. Going between his backyard and distant locations, his chapters cover topics from idealized children's toys ("Where are the teeth on those teddy bears?") to the illegal wildlife trade and include his experiences, ideas, education, and appreciation for the discoveries he makes during expeditions. Readers familiar with Bob Tarte's Enslaved by Ducks or Gerald Durrell's classic My Family and Other Animals will appreciate how Barilla also intertwines humor and a great deal of information to provide an enjoyable and enlightening narrative. Notes and a selected bibliography offer readers ample opportunities to learn more.