Bug Detective

by Maggie Li

Overview

From creepy-crawly beetles and scary spiders to beautiful butterflies, this playful guide will reach out and grab bug-crazy kids! Funny, picture-packed pages provide tons of information on bug habitat, feeding rituals, predators, and more, while each spread focuses on one creature-like bees or centipedes—with a brief introduction and facts scattered brightly everywhere. Plus, the book comes with a magnifying glass embedded in the cover, so budding "detectives" can complete the “missions” theyll find throughout, along with additional activities in the back.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781454915164
Publisher:	Sterling Children's Books
Publication date:	03/03/2015
Pages:	28
Product dimensions:	7.50(w) x 9.80(h) x 4.80(d)
Lexile:	IG900L (what's this?)
Age Range:	6 - 10 Years

About the Author

Maggie Li is a freelance illustrator and Art Director of popular magazine OKIDO. Her work has appeared in The Big Issue, Sunday Times, Telegraph, Le Monde, Reader's Digest, New Statesman, Wired, Time Out, Flamingo magazine, and Condé Nast Traveller. She also works with Google, Eurostar, Heineken and American Airlines, and is part of the increasingly popular Zombie Collective. Maggie lives in London, England.

Editorial Reviews

12/22/2014
This interactive guide to bugs comes packaged with a plastic magnifying glass, allowing readers to look closely at cartoon stick insects, earthworms, centipedes, snails, spiders, and more. The layout of the pages highlights the insects’ movements, with dotted lines demonstrating the trajectory of flying insects and networks of tunnels in the ground made by beetles (even the text gets in on the action, winding around food items on a picnic-themed spread about ants). Li offers brief overviews of each creature, supplemented by illustrated modules of life cycles, “myth buster” sidebars, and captions for the various insects’ activities. Light anthropomorphic details (dung beetles—“nature’s recyclers”—wear green vests as they load up a recycling truck) should interest younger readers, though the magnifying glass doesn’t reveal anything that can’t be seen with the naked eye. Ages 6–up. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

Curious facts about familiar invertebrates are packaged with a magnifying glass for extended observations. Spread by spread, this cheery collection of infobits describes the creepy-crawlies of the world: butterflies, stick insects, beetles, ladybugs, worms, centipedes, snails, spiders, flies, ants and bees . . . The background is a stylized illustration suggesting an environment where the creature might be found: the leaves of a tree for ladybugs, a table full of sweets for flies, beehives inside and out. A short introduction to the group appears at the top right-hand corner of the page followed by a circular illustration of the three or four stages of its life cycle. After that, factoids are scattered around the pages, each with a quick headline: 'dinosaur playmates'; 'slow snail race'; 'spider soup.' There are occasional humorous additions that might just help youngsters remember about species differences. Each page also includes a suggestion for further exploration in the real world using the surprisingly effective plastic magnifier embedded in the cover . . .  an engaging invitation to explore the world of small creatures.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Inviting earthworms, centipedes, spiders, and snails into the buggy fold, Li presents a browser’s buffet of common creepy-crawlies, capped with instructions for a soda bottle worm farm and other low-budget activities. On spreads arranged in no particular order, she covers 11 creatures—including flies, ants, ladybugs, and stick insects. Along with devoting most of the section on beetles to the ever-popular dung beetle, and elsewhere often zeroing in on similarly memorable species, she livens up basics about life cycles, diets, and common behaviors with tasty observations like, ‘In olden days a broth made of snail mucus was used to cure sore throats.’ . . . The attractive painted illustrations are small and occasionally slightly camouflaged, which will encourage readers to use the detachable . . . magnifying glass attached. Young naturalists will enjoy a scuttle through this broad but informative survey.” —Booklist


 

From the Publisher

2015-01-10
Curious facts about familiar invertebrates are packaged with a magnifying glass for extended observations.Spread by spread, this cheery collection of infobits describes the creepy-crawlies of the world: butterflies, stick insects, beetles, ladybugs, worms, centipedes, snails, spiders, flies, ants and bees. The arrangement of facts on a spread is nearly as quirky as the assortment of (unsourced) information the author, a London-based illustrator and art director, has chosen. The background is a stylized illustration suggesting an environment where the creature might be found: the leaves of a tree for ladybugs, a table full of sweets for flies, beehives inside and out. A short introduction to the group appears at the top right-hand corner of the page followed by a circular illustration of the three or four stages of its life cycle. After that, factoids are scattered around the pages, each with a quick headline: "dinosaur playmates"; "slow snail race"; "spider soup." There are occasional humorous additions that might just help youngsters remember facts about species differences. Each page also includes a suggestion for further exploration in the real world using the surprisingly effective plastic magnifier embedded in the cover. For readers who can get beyond the use of the generic "bug," this could be an engaging invitation to explore the world of small creatures. (Nonfiction. 7-10)

Kirkus Reviews