Miss Jane Book Review: PALEO BUGS
PALEO BUGS
Written and illustrated by: Timothy J. Bradley
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Hardcover
Ages: 5 and up
Mr. Bradley’s great cover art!!
The excitement begins with the full color cover illustration of a huge millipede and a dragonfly with a wingspan of 3 feet! The endpapers are an appropriate forest green with silhouettes of various insects that crawled the earth hundreds of millions of years ago.
This introduction to the world of ancient arthropods is more thorough and detailed than its 48 pages would suggest. No fewer than nineteen different arthropods are depicted on the two-page timeline arranged by the Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras. Definitions, classifications and characteristics of arthropods are provided, all paired with color illustrations that are wonderfully depicted in full two-page illustrations that are beautifully art directed!
Each two-page spread features the scientific name (with pronunciation) and the time the arthropod roamed the earth or the ocean. Children will enjoy reading about the ferocious 9- foot-long predator called PTERYGOTUS, a “sea scorpion” that was likely at the top of the food chain during the Silurian period.
Bradley’s language is accessible to young readers, helping them to visualize each creature’s remarkable features. Referring to that huge dragonfly (the MEGANEURA) on the back cover of the book, he writes: “If your spread your arms out as wide as you can, you will see how big (its) wing’s were.” Sidebars provide a comparison of the size of the bug to an outline of a child, who is consistently referred to as “explorer” with a magnifying glass.
Paleo Bugs will appeal to young scientists and would work very well for a teacher covering a unit on paleontology in a simple and straightforward style. The book concludes with a brief section on insects and other arthropods today, reminding the reader that we still have a lot to learn from bugs…”after all, they’ve managed to survive for hundreds of millions of years!”
There is no index (which we would have liked!), but there is a glossary and a short booklist for further reading. Highly recommended for budding scientists!
COMMENT BY JP: Bradley’s book covers a subject that people of all ages - NOT JUST CHILDREN! - will find fascinating, and answers an overlooked question: in a world full of gigantic creatures, what were the insects like? It turns out that they are just as amazing as the dinosaurs! Bradley has written several terrific books about prehistoric creatures and we will be covering them all.