Big Bugs: Seemore Readers Level 1

Look at that striking black background! It makes the green praying mantis stand out like a beauty queen. Now pick up some of the orange and yellow on its legs and head, put those in the title and you have a handsome cover. The cover says, Do you dare open me and see the wonders within? I hear a child's voice, Y-e-e-e-s! Inside are all kinds of delicious bugs in great big close-ups! Children love these! The bigger and scarier the better. How about the spider in South America as large as an adult's hand and eats birds. Let me repeat: A spider eats birds. The atlas moth lives in Southeast Asia, does not have a mouth or eat, mates and dies--all in two weeks. The giant cockroach lives in South America, stinks so others won't eat him, but is kept as a pet!! All this and more. A total of 16 bugs are displayed, located, and described. Each is given at least two striking facts to remember: The giant waterbug can kill a frog or fish twice its size--and there is a photo proving it. The African scorpion can grow up to eight inches. Take a ruler and show eight inches. Wow, they say. Children learn so much from this combination of simple, "juicy" facts and close-up photography. The only thing missing is a geographical map showing bug location. The rest of the book will "bug" out little ones.

My Kindergartener is on Reading Level E in the Guided Reading system (early 1st grade). He thoroughly enjoyed the topic of this book, but it was a little challenging. We ended up taking turns reading the pages. (He read one, then I read the next.) The photos were incredible. He really enjoyed them. Sometimes he gets tired of reading practice because he really prefers science books to fiction books, so it was fun for him to read this book.