LadyBugs and Other Insects: Scholastic First Discoveries

Children's Literature - Cathy Puett Miller

The bright red ladybug highlighted in this nonfiction for young readers is the perfect introduction to insects. The large, simple pictures are complemented by transparent overlay pages and draw the reader from page to page. Those colorful images work well with the simple text, which walks the reader through almost anything children would want to know about ladybugs: their insect characteristics, their unique wing structure, their favorite food, and their life cycle. The authors have even added a few pages at the end about other insects and a fun "which aren't insects" quiz that gives students an opportunity to test what they have learned through their reading. They close the book with a question that invites children to explore further on their own. Although Scholastic rates these books for kindergarten through first grade, I found the text written at a more complex level than that for independent reading. It certainly could be used in read-aloud situations with the youngest school children, or as paired reading since more complex text is printed in a slightly smaller font. That text is more appropriate for independent reading in second and third grade. Part of the "First Discovery" series.