THE BEST BOOK OF BUGS, by Claire Llewellyn

Quick Facts:

- 32 pages

- nonfiction

The Best Book of Bugs is a bold title for author (and illustrator?*) Claire Llewellyn to have chosen, especially since there are an abundance of picture books about bugs for children. However, while I lack the bug-book background for wide comparison, I can confirm that this is a truly excellent book about bugs, describing the habits, habitats and life cycles of a variety of insects.

Information about bugs aside, perhaps one of the best things that The Best Book of Bugs does is help develop a young reader's pragmatic awareness of how traditional informational texts are arranged. The book begins with a table of contents where the reader can determine the location of each topic discussed in the book. This table of contents includes illustrations to accompany the text, so that even emerging readers can determine (for example) that bees are discussed on pages 12 and 14:

The pages are numbered along their bottom outside corner, and each section is labeled (in font larger and bolder than that found on the rest of the page) identically to the way it was named in the table of contents. Pages 32-33 at the very end of the book contain a glossary of terms used throughout the book. That said, glossary terms are not bolded throughout the book, which means that in terms of full functionality as an information text, The Best Book of Bugs is better suited to readers with a bit of familiarity already with how a glossary works.

In terms of the information and page-layout, The Best Book of Bugs does not waste any space, while still maintaining readability and flow. Consider the following page:

There is a lot going on here, but it is carefully organized. Each bug shown is clearly labeled, with lines connecting label information to specific parts of the bug. For the two illustrations which have a more substantial amount of text accompanying them (the central, cross-page stream and the Damselfly Nymph), a small triangular bullet precedes the text, pointing in the direction of its accompanying illustration. Bookending the central information are panels showing information on two clearly labeled topics. Along the far left edge, moving down the page, are outlined the steps a dragonfly nymph follows to catch a meal. Along the far right edge, moving down the page, are three examples of how different water bugs obtain oxygen. This structure allows a great deal of information to be shared in a way that is simple for the reader to navigate and digest.

The illustrations accompanying the text in this book are wholly realistic, which is appropriate both for an informational text and also for the detail with which the text at times discusses its subject matter. Take, for example, the following section on the "stag beetle":

A more impressionistic illustration, focusing primarily on shape and color (like those in Planting a Rainbow) would not permit the reader to see the way in which the stag beetle's jaws look like "horns or antlers." What's more, it would provide little basis of comparison for the reader to distinguish the differences between the different types of beetles shown later:

Overall, The Best Book of Bugs is a very informative, easily navigated book about bugs for young readers. Because of the size of it's type (average is about size 12 font), the scientific language used ("nymph", "oxygen", etc.), and the lack of bolded glossary words, I would recommend it for ages 8+. 

Also, for readers interested in bugs. You have to really like bugs.

*This seems implied by the bibliographic information, but is not explicitly stated.