Beetles

Children's Literature

With the brightly covered photographic illustration on its cover, this book, one of the series "Naturebooks," will immediately capture the attention of young readers. Each page of large print, low reading level text is accompanied by a full page photograph, often taken from extremely close up, of beetles in action. Although the text is interesting and informative, it is the illustrations that make this book a delight to read. One shows a huge, four or five inch long beetle perched on a man's hand, a sight guaranteed to appeal to most young children. Each short chapter is entitled with a question ("What are baby beetles like?" or "How do beetles stay safe?" for example.) This makes it easy to readily find specific information. The book includes an index, a glossary, and the address of a web page, maintained by the publisher. It has up-to-date links to beetle pages that are at an appropriate level for the readers of this title. This book will be popular for both researching and browsing. 2003, The Child's World,
— Leslie Rounds

School Library Journal

Gr 1-4-These glossy introductions give children a firm grasp of the basics. Each one describes its subject's major physical and behavioral characteristics, natural habitats, life cycle, diets, enemies, defense mechanisms, and potential danger to humans. In addition, Merrick discusses the chief differences between centipedes and their close relatives, millipedes; Murray mentions distinctive characteristics of about a dozen particular kinds of beetles. In each title, most pages of text alternate with large, sharp, color close-up photographs of the creatures discussed. Invertebrates depicted are identified by common names in captions. All three books have large, easy-to-read print. The texts are succinctly written and well organized but the highlight of each volume is the photography. Printed on glossy paper, these well-composed illustrations imbue the exoskeletons of most of the invertebrates featured with a soft luster; even the cockroaches have a kind of glamour in the way they are depicted. With their crisp texts and eye-catching color photography, these books will appeal to both browsers and students writing reports.-Karey Wehner, formerly at San Francisco Public Library Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.