Review by Booklist Review
Children who like their insects up close and personal will love the absolutely huge colored-ink illustrations that fill the double-page spreads of this oversize informational picture book. Alongside a giant illustration of each bug in question (eight insects and one spider), which pops off of a bright white background, two lines of large-print text give the bug's name and ask a question: This is a honeybee. Where does it live? A flip of the page reveals a full-bleed double-page illustration showing the bug in its habitat alongside a dense paragraph describing its building process and work habits. It's an imposing block of text, but younger readers can just savor the drawings, which burst with color and activity and represent a wide variety of landscapes and behaviors. A brief introduction gives general information and fun facts about insects in a format similar to Munro's Hatch! (2011).--Enos, Randall Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Readers who are curious about insect habitats and behavior will find answers in this guide to their behind-the-scenes activities. Munro introduces nine insects by blowing each one up to fill an entire spread of its own ("This is a Red Harvester Ant... Where does it live?"), giving readers a close view. Busy intervening spreads depict the insect's home. Harvester ants, for example, create subterranean chambers, which are divided into areas for food storage, nurseries, and other purposes, while a pine processionary caterpillar lives in a nest on a pine branch that "looks like cotton candy." While the heavy blocks of text may trip up younger readers, it's a useful exploration of a handful of insect species. Ages 5-11. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 3-6-Complex structures built by eight insects and one arachnid are featured in brief, extravagantly illustrated, enormously enlarged entries. Each creature is introduced on an oversize spread: "This is an Organ-Pipe Mud Dauber. Where does it live?" No clues are provided, but the following spread with a cutaway view of the nest or other construction and a dense paragraph of explanation offers a cursory answer to the question. "The Organ-Pipe Mud Dauber (Trypoxylon politum) is a wasp named for the nest of long, narrow, multicolored tubes made of dried mud and often attached to a wall." Some further description of the insect's behavior or its building method is given, but there's no indication of its actual size, its changing form as it lives and matures in the nest, or its geographical location. The Australian Weaver Ant and the African Termite have names offering clues, but the honeybees and some others do live in more nearby places. Munro uses the four-page guessing-game scheme she used in Hatch (Marshall Cavendish, 2011), which introduces different eggs and the birds hatching from them, but the exaggerated views and sketchy, often-difficult explanations make this title more of an album of curiosities. Large and heavy in the hand, the book has bold views that might attract browsers.-Margaret Bush, Simmons College, Boston (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
Profiles of eight insects (and, unaccountably, one spider) that make their own structures are presented. Each insect (and said spider) is introduced by name with a wonderfully close-up illustration and the question, "Where does it live?" Turn the page, and the answer is revealed, showing several to many of the organisms industriously building and maintaining their home. In an accompanying paragraph, detailed explanations on the construction techniques and purposes of the structures are interwoven with facts about each species life cycles, particularly the larval stages protected within the structures, food sources, and habitats. As always, Munro expertly employs perspective, on one page placing readers zoomed in at eye-level up next to an ant or wasp, close enough to see the hairs on their legs and the shapes of their antennae, and then on the next page backing out to just the right distance to feature the geometric details of their nests and hives. Additional general facts about insects (and spiders) are included on the front and back endpapers. danielle j. ford(c) Copyright 2012. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Many-legged home-builders are rendered in remarkable artwork. Eight habitat-building insects plus one spider are introduced. Each receives a close-up two-page look at the animal alone followed by a full-spread painting of the web, hive or mound in which it lives, here accompanied by a description of its hunting, nesting and food-storage habits. For most of the insects, the habitat provides a way to store its eggs and hatch and nurture larvae; the spider uses its web to capture its food. The full-color ink illustrations work well to give a sense of the creature's body structure as well as of the general look of the hive or nest for each. The individual portraits are terrifically impressive, while the handsome habitat paintings show very well from a slight distance, making this a good choice for reading aloud to a group. Munro includes within each habitat drawing a close-up or cutaway interior look at a piece of the structure. The information presented is clear and unadorned, densely packed in a trim, compact type against the background of the habitat paintings. More information appears on the insect-focused introductory page directly opposite the title-page verso, and a glossary of "Bug Words" along with a brief list of resources is included on the last page. Enticing as an introduction to insects and spiders. (Nonfiction. 4-9)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
