Wings, Stings and Wriggly Things

ISBN 0763600369 - Bugs are very cool. As it happens, books are pretty cool, too. Put them together and you get... squished bugs! No, really, you get an educational book about bugs that boys, in particular, will enjoy. Butterflies, snails, bees, worms, dragonflies, spiders, grasshoppers and crickets, ants and beetles are all topics of their own sections. Each section is about 2 pages, although there are a couple fold-out pages. The book includes some basic facts, a little bit of the "yuck" factor, an index and some quiz questions (with the answers in the back). Author Martin Jenkins manages to walk the line between "ew, bugs" and "cool, bugs" pretty well. The information is interesting and, even when it's a little gross, fascinating. Illustrations by Sandra Doyle, Clive Pritchard, and Ian Thompson really make the book come alive. Although the images are slightly cartoon-ish, they're fairly realistic and, in a non-fiction book, that matters a lot. The index is a nice tool and not too common in children's books. The quiz questions are printed on the borders of the pages and are a little too easy to miss and the answers aren't in the text, which is a bit odd. Still, educational and likely to appeal to boys (who are generally less into books than girls) are two things that carry a lot of weight for me! - AnnaLovesBooks