CHIRPING CRICKETS

by Melvin Berger ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 31, 1998

To human listeners, cricket songs announce that summer can't last forever; their evening chirps forecast falling leaves, cooler temperatures, and the start of school in the not-so-distant future. But for crickets, chirping is the mating song of male crickets, rubbing their front wings together, which females ""hear"" through membranes on their knees. These familiar insects seem a natural subject for the Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science series; Berger (How Life Began, 1991, etc.) describes their life cycles and their basic anatomy in an accessible, lively way. Lloyd's pictures are large and colorful; captions point out the knee ears and the sound-producing parts of the wings. Easy projects are included, as is a tidy formula for figuring out the temperature from the number of cricket chirps per minute.

Pub Date: May 31, 1998

ISBN: 0064451801

Page Count: 32

Publisher: HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1998

Categories: CHILDREN'S