The Spider

School Library Journal

Gr 5-8-- These beautifully designed pop-ups are visually exciting, filled with color and movement, as a larger-than-life, three-dimensional replica of a Goliath Beetle or a Mexican red-kneed tarantula rises up from the center of the book. Smaller pop-ups and full-color drawings appear on either side of the main one, amid narrow pages of text arranged in two booklets attached to the outer edges of the spread. Both titles are succinctly written and well organized; however, the small print and difficult vocabulary may present a problem for some readers. Another minor handicap is that the pages are unnumbered, and the correct sequence of information is not always obvious. Beetle has a livelier style and contains somewhat more complex paper engineering. Johnson's Beetles (Lerner, 1982), with excellent full-color photographs, provides more detail on anatomy and the process of metamorphosis than the Mudd title, and covers about the same number of species. Schnieper's Amazing Spiders (Carolrhoda, 1989) examines anatomy, mating behavior, birth, and development of the young in greater depth than Woelflein's book; it also cites the average size of the species depicted in stunning, closeup photographs. Still, browsers will be attracted to these two books. --Karey Wehner, San Francisco Public Library