We Are The Keystones by Katy S Duffield & Hannah Salyer

subtitled Animals that Hold Habitats Together. And honestly, I feel like I probably learn more facts more quickly from kids’ non-fiction than I do from nearly any other form of media (and I am 100% not the only former Jeopardy! contestant who will tell you so.)

We Are The Keystones is the perfect example of this. This picture book for advancing readers covers a good number of animal species that serve, like their namesakes do in the construction of arches, as a crucial component in holding ecosystems together. As author Katy S Duffield explains in her afterword, keystone species, whether plant or animal, are particularly impactful in encouraging the balance that allows a community to thrive, if not outright survive. Removing these species is the surest way to threaten environmental collapse, as nothing else can step in to provide quite what they do.

Unsurprisingly, this includes creatures such as beavers and wolves. The former are important in the creation and maintenance of wetlands, while the latter keep down the population of creatures that can ravage forests with overgrazing. I was more surprised to learn about the roles of elephants and especially alligators in their respective ecosystems, but that is the beauty of books like these: to bring information in as accessible manner as possible to as wide an audience as it can.

Hannah Salyer’s art is both immersive and dream-like, sometimes showing a child exploring the forest, sometimes showing the various species in glorious tableaux. I want to make a special note of the gorgeous dust jacket. While the book cover itself is perfectly fine, the dust jacket features an ornate reverse silhouette effect (pictured above) that’s quite extraordinary.

Books like this help instill the knowledge that ecosystems are complex things that mustn’t be interfered with willy-nilly, usually from a hysterical fear for human safety or, worse, lust for financial gain. Humanity should, instead, take on the responsibility of studying and caring for these complex systems that we depend on just as much as our surrounding flora and fauna do. Knee-jerk reactions must never override actual science when it comes to dealing with the natural world, as this book so quietly and expertly underlines (in a lesson that is so, so applicable to other fields, too.)

We Are The Keystones by Katy S Duffield & Hannah Salyer was published September 1 2026 by Beach Lane Books and is available from all good booksellers, including