A NOTE FROM MICHAEL SIMS:

When editors at National Geographic Books called and asked me to adapt the documentary “In the Womb: Animals” into a book, how could I resist?

I grew up in the country in eastern Tennessee, raising dogs and rabbits and ducks, guinea pigs and hamsters, a turtle and a horse. One of my earliest journal entries, as a teenager, was about the birth of our dog's pups. I’ve watched the beautiful and mysterious process of birth from the outside too many times to not want to follow it from the inside.

Published in time to coincide with the premier of “In the Womb: Extreme” on the National Geographic Channel in spring 2009, the book will be the second in the popular series launched by “In the Womb.”

National Geographic is providing photography from the documentaries and from their own amazing resources, including dazzling CGI work, to illustrate the book.

Actually I’m adapting two episodes of the “In the Womb” series into a single book—“Animals” and “Extreme.” My book follows the three stars of “Animals”—a golden retriever, a bottlenose dolphin, and an Asian elephant—and adds for comparison animals from “Extreme,” including a red kangaroo, an emperor penguin, a lemon shark, and a parasitic wasp.

If readers have anywhere near as much fun reading “In the Womb: Animals” as I’m having writing it, I’ll be happy.