Bugs Up Close.

Sandy Campbell is a reference librarian in the Science and Technology Library at the University of Alberta.

Bugs Up Close opens by making a careful distinction between insects and other small creatures, such as spiders and Daddy longlegs. In spite of this precision, the author has titled the book Bugs Up Close. Much of the content is not about bugs, which are heteroptera, a suborder of insects that are usually wingless and have sucking beaks. While many people use the word “bug” to mean any “creepy crawlie,” it should not be used that way in a scientifically accurate work.

The work is presented as an illustrated natural history of insects, including 17 sections dedicated to such things as different body parts, feeding, reproduction, and metamorphosis. While the text comprises only about one-third of each section, it contains enough factual data to be used by upper elementary students for science projects. The photographs, which take up the other two-thirds, are highly magnified images of insects, illustrating the theme of the section. For example, the mayfly featured in the “Wings” section has wings 20 centimetres long. Some of the images make the insects look like monsters. Younger children will either be fascinated or repulsed by them.

Each section has a “Buggy Bit”—an orange oval containing an interesting fact about the insect in the photograph. The one accompanying the cicada reads: “Billions of cicadas can appear in a city at one time.”

Both public and elementary school libraries will want to add this book to their collections. Recommended.