The ant's nest A huge, underground city

Aronin's contribution to the Spectacular Animal Towns series gives only a glimpse of the physical construction of ant colonies, but children will still come away with an appreciation of the extraordinary insects that build them. Using straightforward language, the author introduces one topic per double-page spread. The main text appears in boxes at the top of the spread, the remainder of which is devoted to captioned photos (and a few minimally helpful charts), placed against a dark green, patterned background. Many of the photos are bordered as if taken from a photo album (odd, given the book's topic), but that doesn't really detract from their eye-catching subjects, which will lead browsers right back to the informational content. Frankly, it's hard to resist close-ups of a worker ant moving a seed as big as itself or a queen carrying nine tiny eggs in her mouth. Unfamiliar terms, in boldface, are clearly defined in the text itself, though a glossary is appended.--Zvirin, Stephanie Copyright 2009 Booklist