THE INSECT WORLD

This is top drawer nature material -- handling that elusive (and not often appealing) insect world in dramatic story fashion which should lead young naturalists on to further interest and investigation. The author has broken down her material into How young insects grow, How they feed, How they breathe, and so on, illustrating her major divisions by the life stories of specific insects that typify the points she wishes to make. The Luna moth, the dragonfly, the grasshopper are chosen to tell how insects grow. Crickets, cockroaches, Japanese beetles, termites, and other pests and plagues of man and nature are discussed under the problem of how they feed. (I almost resented getting as interested as she made me in their life cycles). The insect killers and the insect scavengers, the carpet beetles and the clothes moths and others, didn't get much sympathy. Armour and camouflage, architects and builders -- these sections brought in yet other aspects of the many-faceted insect world. A fascinating book for all ages. The galleys showed no examples of Zhenya Gay's illustrations. But they are sure to be fine.