Thursday, March 30, 2017

Insects: The Most Fun Bug Book Ever by Sneed Collard III –NO

Collard III, Sneed Insects: The Most Fun Bug Book Ever.  PICTURE BOOK.  48 pgs. Charlesbridge, 2017.  $17.99.  Content: G.
This book features chapters about different aspects of insects, like the chemical communication they use, what they like to each, which are the fastest and the toughest, and hatching. Each chapter is stuffed with information. There are tons of photographs and fact boxes.
This was a long read, only a student who was really into insects would preserve through this, maybe third grade and up. There are many attempts at humoring the child reader, but the references and vernacular are outdated. Unfortunately the publisher did little to try to match the level of fun and excitement that the author was trying to portray. The layout is just boring (again, I am comparing to Lerner, who has their team on the ball), many of the pictures look outdated, like reprints from the 1970s, this could be a print quality issue as well. Some of the picture choices were poor as well, like fireflies, a close up is shown but it’s not glowing! The fact boxes really bothered me, they contained the most interesting information but the same insect was shown crawling around each, which would confuse student readers because the information is about other insects. Bottom line is that if you have to put “the most fun bug book ever” on the cover, it probably isn’t.  

EL(K-3), EL –NOT RECOMMENDED Reviewer: Stephanie Elementary School Librarian & Author.

No comments: