Small Wonders: Jean-Henri Fabre and His World of Insects

A moth with a sixth sense. A wasp that hunts beetles nearly twice its size. The lives of fascinating creatures such as these were unknown until one man introduced them to the world.

Meet Jean-Henri Fabre, one of the most important naturalists of all time. As a boy in the French countryside, Henri spent hours watching insects. He dreamed of observing them in a new way: in their own habitats. What he discovered in pursuing that dream was shocking; these small, seemingly insignificant creatures led secret lives—lives of great drama!

With its lively, lyrical text and richly detailed illustrations, this intriguing picture-book biography introduces the man who would forever change the way we look at insects, bringing to life the fascinating world of dazzling beetles, ferocious wasps, and other amazing small wonders that exist all around us.

Matthew Clark Smith has been an amateur naturalist and lover of insects for nearly his whole life, having studied biology in school and worked in environmental science since then. He’s also a designer, musician, and mapmaker, and he recently earned a graduate degree in creative writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. He lives in Jackson, Mississippi, with his family, where he says you have little choice but to come to terms with bugs. Small Wonders is his first children’s book.