About Insects: A Guide for Children (The About Series) - Hardcover

Sill, Cathryn

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1561452076 ISBN 13: 9781561452071

Publisher: Peachtree Pub Co Inc, 2000

Synopsis

A beginner’s guide to how crustaceans look, how they protect themselves, what they eat, and where they live.

About this title

About the Author

CATHRYN SILL is an elementary school teacher in Franklin, North Carolina, and the author of ABOUT BIRDS, ABOUT MAMMALS, and ABOUT REPTILES. With her husband John and brother-in-law Ben Sill, she co-authored the popular bird guide parodies A FIELD GUIDE TO LITTLE-KNOWN AND SELDOM-SEEN BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA, ANOTHER FIELD GUIDE TO LITTLE-KNOWN AND SELDOM-SEEN BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA, and BEYOND BIRDWATCHING.

JOHN SILL is a prize winning and widely published wildlife artist who illustrated ABOUT BIRDS, ABOUT MAMMALS, and ABOUT REPTILES, as well as illustrating and co-authoring the FIELD GUIDES and BEYOND BIRDWATCHING.

Reviews

Grade 1-3-This title offers separate, full-page watercolor paintings of 18 different kinds of insects in their natural habitats. Insects depicted include: silverfish, giant walkingstick, black horse fly, elephant stag beetle, gladiator katydid, honey bee, and luna moth. A single line of large, bold-print text appears on the page opposite each illustration; on the bottom right-hand corner, a caption provides the common name of the species depicted. Each simple sentence or fragment describes either a general characteristic shared by all insects, or a special characteristic of a particular group. Additional bits of general information about insects as well as miscellaneous facts about the featured species are appended. As in About Birds (1991), About Mammals (1997), and About Reptiles (1999, all Peachtree), the realistic watercolor paintings are this book's main focus. They are bright, attractive, and nicely varied in composition. However, despite their visual appeal, the artwork sometimes fails to illustrate the text effectively. For example, the painting of mantis nymphs emerging from an egg case does not match the text, which reads, "Young insects hatch from eggs." As no eggs are visible, this statement is apt to be confusing. Sandra Markle's Creepy, Crawly Baby Bugs (Walker, 1996) provides more detailed information on insect anatomy, reproduction, and behavior and is illustrated with excellent, close-up color photographs.
Karey Wehner, San Francisco Public Library
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Peachtree Pub Co Inc
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1561452076
• ISBN 13: 9781561452071
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Sill John
• Number of pages: 48