In the town of Kariba, Africa, people and animals live together happily. The town was built in a place where wild animals live. As long as both humans and animals obey certain rules, they can live peacefully. What are the rules in Kariba? How dangerous is it there?

Why do America’s cities look the way they do? If we want to know the answer, we should start by looking at our relationship with animals. Americans once lived alongside animals. They raised them, worked them, ate them, and lived off their products. This was true not just in rural areas but also in cities, which were crowded with livestock and beasts of burden. But as urban areas grew in the nineteenth century, these relationships changed. Slaughterhouses, dairies, and hog ranches receded into suburbs and hinterlands. Milk and meat increasingly came from stores, while the family cow and pig gave way to the household pet. This great shift, Andrew Robichaud reveals, transformed people’s relationships with animals and nature and radically altered ideas about what it means to be human. As Animal City illustrates, these transformations in human and animal lives were not inevitable results of population growth but rather followed decades of social and political struggles. City officials sought to control urban animal populations and developed sweeping regulatory powers that ushered in new forms of urban life. Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals worked to enhance certain animals’ moral standing in law and culture, in turn inspiring new child welfare laws and spurring other wide-ranging reforms. The animal city is still with us today. The urban landscapes we inhabit are products of the transformations of the nineteenth century. From urban development to environmental inequality, our cities still bear the scars of the domestication of urban America.

The first non-fiction reading series for English language learners to present captivating real-world stories in print, audio, and video.

Take an unforgettable tour around the world to meet the creatures that share our city spaces—from bears to bats, penguins to opossums—and learn about how they have adapted and thrived in this gorgeously illustrated gift book written by award-winning natural history journalist Ben Hoare. Wild City travels the globe, exploring how animals have adapted to live alongside humans, in busy cities including New York, Rio de Janeiro, Berlin, Stockholm, London, Alexandria, Singapore, and Mumbai. Discover hawks by a world-famous shopping street, snakes slithering through city sewers, and penguins waiting patiently to cross the road. Feature spreads take a closer look at the animals, showing how some wander in plain sight while others hide away in our homes, and we meet wildlife heroes from around the world—ordinary people doing extraordinary things to make our wild neighbors feel welcome. Lyrical and factual text written by the award-winning Ben Hoare is perfectly complemented by Lucy Rose's stunning illustrations. The beautiful cityscapes are full of detail with something new to discover with every look.

What would you do if you found an alligator in your garage? Or if you spotted a mountain lion downtown? In cities and suburbs around the world, wild creatures are showing up where we least expect them. Not all of them arrive by accident, and some are here to stay. As the human population tops seven billion, animals are running out of space. Their natural habitats are surrounded—and sometimes even replaced—by highways, shopping centers, office parks, and subdivisions. The result? A wildlife invasion of our urban neighborhoods. What kinds of animals are making cities their new home? How can they survive in our ecosystem of concrete, steel, and glass? And what does their presence there mean for their future and ours? Join scientists, activists, and the folks next door on a journey around the globe to track down our newest wild animal neighbors. Discover what is bringing these creatures to our backyards—and how we can create spaces for people and animals to live side by side.