Danna Staaf earned a PhD in biology from Stanford University with her studies of baby squid. She is the author of Monarchs of the Sea and The Lady and the Octopus, and she has written for Science, Atlas Obscura, and Nautilus. She lives in California with her human family, a cat, and a garden full of grubs, caterpillars, maggots, and innumerable other babies.

Richard Strathmann, PhD, is an expert in the diverse patterns of animal development, with a particular focus on marine animals. He finds the beauty and variety of changes from eggs through embryos, larvae, and metamorphosis endlessly entertaining. He joined the faculty of the University of Washington in 1973.

Contents
 
Introduction: A World of the Babies, by the Babies, for the Babies
 
PART I: BUNDLES OF JOY
1. Eggs: Not Just a Bird Thing
2. Provisioning: How to Pack Your Baby’s Lunch
3. Brooding Eggs: Carry Them, Sit on Them, Swallow Them Whole
4. Pregnancy: Not Just a Mammal Thing
 
PART II: SALAD DAYS
5. Larvae: When Kids Look Like Aliens
6. Unaccompanied Minors: Where Do the Escargot?
7. Raising Them Right: Conservation and Sustainability
8. Evolution: What It Does and Doesn’t Recapitulate
 
PART III: COMING OF AGE
9. Metamorphosis, but Happier Than Kafka
10. Juveniles: Neither One Thing nor Another
11. Emergence: A Cicada Case Study
 
Epilogue: Our Quiet Dependence on Babies
 

From the author of Monarchs of the Sea, a first-of-its-kind journey into the hidden world of baby animals--hailed as "a gobsmacking delight!" (Sy Montgomery, New York Times-bestselling author of The Soul of an Octopus)