by Camilla de la Bédoyère ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 15, 2016
No substitute for getting down and dirty in the greenery but a good and visually memorable start.
A gallery that will bring young naturalists close—very close—to common creepy-crawlies.
“Bugs” in this case includes earthworms, snails, and water bears, along with well over three dozen arthropods sharing worldwide distribution, from cat fleas and woodlice to grasshoppers, blowflies, and spiders. Huge, high-resolution stock photos or micro photos of representative specimens are set against black or blurred-out backgrounds to bring colors and finer details of anatomy into spectacular high relief. Around these, smaller photos share space with digestible chunks of introductory comment, distinctive features, definitions of scientific terms, and bulleted facts. Though living up to its titular promise that at least some species of all the chosen invertebrates are likely to be near at hand in any reader’s habitat, this is not a field guide. Nor, aside from an advisory against collecting or even touching live insects, does the author offer guidelines for outdoor expeditions, instructions for hands-on projects, or resources for further study. Along with realizing that movie aliens and monsters have nothing over what nature has on display, though, even casual browsers will absorb some basic information about the wildlife that, would they but look a little closer, wriggles and scampers all around.
No substitute for getting down and dirty in the greenery but a good and visually memorable start. (index, glossary) (Nonfiction. 8-11)Pub Date: July 15, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-77085-697-4
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Firefly
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
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by Camilla de la Bédoyère ; illustrated by Britta Teckentrup
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by Camilla de la Bédoyère ; illustrated by Britta Teckentrup
by Michael Worek ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 1, 2013
Resplendent.
In glittering, chitinous splendor, 59 insects, from an elegantly dappled Mexican dobsonfly to an 8-inch Macleay’s spectre pose for close-ups in this eye-widening photo gallery.
Arranged in no particular order and enlarged to roughly the same size, the cast of beetles, bugs, ants, mantids and caterpillars all seems to be sitting directly on the plain white pages, with pale shadows added and the occasional twig or bud for a prop. Nearly all not only bear vividly colored patterns or coats of shimmering armor, but display as astonishing an array of exotic forms as ever was—these bugs are decked out with baroque spikes, palps, antennae and other features. Worek supplies common and scientific labels for all this eye candy, as well as enough information on each subject’s size, diet, geographical range and life cycle to please even larval entomologists.
Resplendent. (index) (Informational picture book. 8-10)Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-77085-235-8
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Firefly
Review Posted Online: Oct. 22, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2013
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by Alain M. Bergeron ; Michel Quintin ; Sampar ; illustrated by Sampar ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 30, 2014
Strong-stomached browsers will lap these up; budding naturalists will find better intellectual nourishment elsewhere.
A dribble of scientific information about everyone’s favorite bloodsucking worm provides a Canadian cartoonist with opportunities for some rousingly icky visual commentary.
The informational text comprises such lines as “Most leeches live in fresh water,” or “Oftentimes, doctors would apply up to 100 leeches per session,” arranged in no discernible order and placed inconspicuously at the bottom of each page. They caption cartoon scenes of a young collector cheerfully dumping a slimy bucketful into his horrified parent’s bathwater, a doctor leaning over a desiccated patient (“Something tells me we might have left these leeches on a bit too long”), a child refusing to enter a pond for fear of the creatures—unaware that her back is covered with them—and other views of comically caricatured leeches and their prey in action or conversation. Though readers will be at least exposed to some basic information about these creatures’ habitats, body parts, dietary habits, reproductive practices and uses in medicine, Sampar’s gross-out gags and comics will definitely make, and leave, the more lasting impression. This outing is published with seven series mates that offer less revolting but no less superficial (and, OK, diverting) introductions to chameleons, crocodiles, crows, porcupines, rats, spiders and toads.
Strong-stomached browsers will lap these up; budding naturalists will find better intellectual nourishment elsewhere. (glossary, index) (Graphic nonfiction. 8-10)Pub Date: March 30, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-55455-318-1
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Fitzhenry & Whiteside
Review Posted Online: Nov. 26, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2013
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by Alain M. Bergeron ; illustrated by Sampar ; translated by Sophie B. Watson
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by Alain M. Bergeron ; Michel Quintin ; Sampar ; illustrated by Sampar ; translated by Solange Messier
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