Cicadas!: Strange and Wonderful - Hardcover

Pringle, Laurence

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1590786734 ISBN 13: 9781590786734

Publisher: Astra Young Readers, 2010

Synopsis

Discover why cicadas are all the BUZZ. Every year, annual cicadas emerge and pierce the air with their buzzing calls. Also every year, at least one brood of thirteen-year or seventeen-year cicadas emerges in some part of the eastern or central United States. In the spring of 2011, a giant brood will hatch in parts of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. Just in time, renowned author Laurence Pringle and accomplished nature illustrator Meryl Henderson have created the most complete, comprehensive book for kids about these noisy but harmless insects. This is the story of an insect that deserves to be protected.

About this title

About the Author:

Laurence Pringle is a recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Prize from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He lives in West Nyack, New York.

Meryl Henderson has illustrated numerous books for children, including Bats! Stange and Wonderful, and other books in the Strange and Wonderful series. She lives in upstate New York.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 3–5—This title examines one of the most remarkable life cycles in nature. A succinct text, set against the background of vivid watercolor paintings of the insects in natural settings, describes their physical characteristics; the distinctive characteristics of several world species; the basic cicada life cycle; and the remarkably prolonged one of periodical species. These insects remain underground as nymphs for 13 or 17 years before emerging en masse to metamorphose into adults. The text emphasizes that the thousands of large, red-eyed insects that appear regularly in parts of the U.S. (mostly in the East) are harmless and belong to a different order from locusts, with which they are often confused (an anecdote relates how Pilgrims were alarmed at encountering cicadas in 1634). Also described are annual cicadas; how males generate their loud, buzzing mating call; cicadas' place in world folklore; threats to their survival, etc. The realistic paintings extend the text; smaller, boxed illustrations, overlaid on spreads, offer close-ups of anatomical features, developmental stages, and so on. Maps indicate geographical range, while a chart lists the years of the insects' emergence in various states. An author's note outlines Pringle's personal observations of cicadas and his recent efforts to establish some in a forest near his home. This smoothly written, beautifully illustrated title will fill a gap in most collections.—Karey Wehner, formerly at San Francisco Public Library
(c) Copyright 2011.  Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

About this edition

• Publisher: Astra Young Readers
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 1590786734
• ISBN 13: 9781590786734
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Henderson Meryl Learnihan