Welcome to Tanglebay
Tanglebay’s Friends is an illustrated animal adventure series for readers aged 7–11, combining fictional mysteries and friendships with real animal biology and free printable activities.
Welcome to Tanglebay, a wonderfully chaotic world where friendships get complicated, mysteries never stay buried for long, and every animal has something extraordinary up their sleeve.
Follow a colourful cast of animal characters through mysteries, hilarious misunderstandings, unlikely friendships and the occasional town-wide disaster.
But behind Tanglebay’s superpowers is something very real: nature.
Every character’s extraordinary ability is inspired by the biology of their actual species. A mole’s remarkable sense of smell becomes Erica’s Super-Snout Radar. A chameleon’s extraordinary colour-changing abilities inspire Leon’s Super-Camouflage. And Dimitri’s spectacular vision? You’ll have to meet the mantis shrimp behind that one.
At the end of each adventure, Biology Secrets reveal the fascinating real-world science that inspired the story.
The book is only the beginning.
The adventure continues with free printable activities designed to accompany the books and bring their stories off the page.
Simple materials. Step-by-step guidance. Plenty of room for imagination.
Most activities need little more than a printer, paper, scissors, glue and a pencil. Each activity tells you what to prepare.
Print the activity, set it up, and you’re ready to return to Tanglebay.
And the best part? The adventure isn’t only for the child.
Challenge a young reader to 5 Seconds for a Stand and find yourselves on opposite sides of a spirited battle of opinions about the characters’ choices.
Gather siblings or friends, build your team of Tanglebay characters and try to escape The Wild Path using their extraordinary animal abilities.
Step inside Dimitri’s Lab, become a young researcher and discover biomimicry by turning nature’s cleverest adaptations into ideas for the human world.
Put on your officer’s hat and investigate a brand-new case alongside Officer Honey, following evidence, questioning suspects and deciding who you can really trust.
Or simply sit together with the Discussion Cards, return to moments from the story and discover that two people can read the exact same scene and come away with completely different ideas about what happened.
At home, in a classroom, at a library or with a club, Tanglebay activities are designed to turn reading into something children can talk about, argue about, investigate, invent with and play together.
Along the way, they’ll practise reasoning, communication, creativity, collaboration and scientific thinking.
But don’t tell them that.
Read the adventure. Discover the science. Come back and play.
Explore the activities →