Two Great Bug Books

Over on my Facebook page I’ve been posting photos of flies every week – for Happy Fly Day! So how did I get to the end of summer having posted only one book about insects? Well, I shall rectify the situation immediately! Here are two very fun-to-read books from my library system.

theme: insects, nature, STEM

The Bug Girl: A True Story 

by Sophia Spencer with Margaret McNamara; illus. by Kerascoët 

44 pages; ages 4-8

Schwartz & Wade, 2020

The first time I made friends with a bug, I was two and a half years old.

Turns out, kids think bugs are cool. Until someone tells them they aren’t. Sophie was one of those kids who thinks bugs are the best thing this side of a popsicle on a hot August afternoon. She read bug books like other kids read story books. While her friends watched cat videos, Sophie watched bug videos. And all was well until first grade… when some big kids told her she was weird and stomped on her grasshopper.

OK – let’s take a break here. Stomping on somebody’s friend is not cool, no matter how many legs they have.

What I like about this book: I love how Sophie’s mom supports her arthropod-passion. Mom connects with entomologists by email, asking for one of them to be a “bug pal”. I love the enthusiastic responses from entomologists – because, really, we are all eager to share our love of bugs with anyone! And I love the back matter! Sophie explains bugs and arthropods, provides some cool bug facts, shares her top four bugs, and gives a bunch of tips for how to study bugs in the wild.

I give this book 5 fireflies – which look kind of like stars (at night. Otherwise they look just like beetles. Which they are.).

The Bug Book

by Sue Fliess 

32 pages; ages 3-5

‎Grosset & Dunlap, 2016

Grab your bucket. Check your guide. Let’s go find some bugs outside.

Using rhyme, this book introduces a diversity of insects, worms, spiders, and other “bugs.”

What I like about this book: It’s fun to read. It’s filled with gorgeous photos of bugs. And it has a “don’t squish bugs” message.

Beyond the Books:

What’s your favorite bug? Draw a picture of it.

Go on a bug hike. Take along a hand lens, a camera, or just your curiosity. Look for bugs that hang out in yards, on or near trees, on flowers, in sidewalk cracks, at the park, in a stream. Write a poem about one of the bugs you find. Or write a letter to your bug.

Print out a Bug Bingo card and go for a walk. Take a pencil or crayon to check off the bugs you find. You can find a simple bingo card at Mass Audubon, or a bigger one at the Ann Arbor Hands-on Museum.

We’ll join Perfect Picture Book Friday once they resume. It’s a wonderful gathering where bloggers share great picture books at Susanna Leonard Hill's website. Review from books checked out at my library.

Explore Outdoors ~ Early morning spiderwebs

 The best time to find spiderwebs is early morning. Especially on foggy days! On this day grass spider webs filled neighborhood lawns like patchwork squares on a quilt, and orb webs filled spaces between plants, fence posts, even the railings on the bridge. What kinds of spiderwebs do you find in your neighborhood?

Books that explore Math

Warning: School days are closer than they look on the calendar! So today I’m sharing two books that brush up on math concepts in a fun way. The first takes us deep into the rainforest.

theme: math, biodiversity, comparisons

Tree of Wonder: The Many Marvelous Lives of a Rainforest Tree
by Kate Messner; illus by Simona Mulazzani
pages 36 ; ages 5-8
Chronicle Books, paperback edition, 2020

Deep in the forest, in the warm-wet green, ONE ALMENDRO TREE grows, stretching its branches toward sun.

Flip a page and it’s two macaws, then four toucans, then eight howler monkeys. Can you see a pattern here? There are snakes, frogs, butterflies, and ants! So many cool animals to look at and count.

What I like about this book: Three-quarters of the spread is given to lyrical text and detailed illustrations of the tree and the animals that live in and around it. Then a panel shows the number (four), the correct number of animals (four toucan icons), and an additional layer of text providing more facts about the animal. I love how the last page brings it all back together: 

Life multiplies again and again … in this ONE ALMENDRO TREE.

Back matter provides more information about the Almendro tree, more playing around with math, and resources to read, watch, and explore for kids who want to know more about the rainforest.

Comparisons Big and Small
by Clive Gifford; illus. by Ana Seixas
48 pages; ages 5 and up
Kane Miller, 2020

 Did you know that a spinner dolphin can jump higher than a double-decker bus?

If you’re looking for a fun way to introduce comparisons, this book is filled with ‘em. Each spread focuses on one type of comparison: length, speed, weight. What I like about this book is that it is browseable – perfect for the kid who wants to dive in at random and explore a page. Vertical spreads offer interactive ways to interact with the book. And there are plenty of “quick quizzes” scattered throughout. Some of my favorite sections are about bugs, comparing countries, being a dino detective, and space stuff. For sports buffs there’s a section about record-breaking throws, and lots of comparisons on how fast animals can run and how high they can jump.

Beyond the Books:

How fast can you run? Mark a starting place on the sidewalk or playground, then have a friend with a watch time you for 10 seconds. Measure the distance you covered. Then compare how far you went in that time to how far other animals can go: a caterpillar? your cat or dog? a beetle?

Compare the heights of people in your home or classroom. Compare how far people can throw a tennis ball. What other things can you compare?

Try some doubling math. Get one hundred things to use as counters: dry beans, pennies, macaroni elbows, beads, legos. Then line up five or six bowls. Put two counters in the first bowl. Then put four in the next. Double that number for bowl # 3. When do you run out of counters? Bonus: if you got a penny on the first day of September, and every day after that you got double the number of pennies (day 2 = 2 pennies, day 3 = 4 and so on) how much money would you have by the end of the month?

We’ll join Perfect Picture Book Friday once they resume. It’s a wonderful gathering where bloggers share great picture books at Susanna Leonard Hill's website. Review copies provided by the publishers.