Bugs: A Stunning Pop-up Look at Insects, Spiders, and Other Creepy-Crawlies

by George McGavin, Jim Kay (Illustrator)

Overview

A fascinating pop-up journey into the hidden world of insects, spiders, and other creepy-crawlies.

Larger-than-life bugs spring from the pages, peek out from behind flaps, and hide under tabs, inviting young entomologists to marvel at the mind-boggling variety of arthropod life. What reader can resist a chance to look inside a cockroach’s body to see how it works or open a wasps’ nest to see what’s inside? Useful information (why does the world need bees?) and scientific trivia (which beetles are strongest and fastest?) pack every page, while exquisite art and dramatic pop-ups bring the world of bugs to teeming life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780763667627
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	10/08/2013
Pages:	12
Product dimensions:	10.30(w) x 9.40(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	7 - 10 Years

About the Author

George McGavin, a renowned entomologist, is an honorary research associate at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History and the Department of Zoology of Oxford University. He has several insect species named in his honor. He lives in England.

Jim Kay worked in the archives of the Tate Gallery and the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, two experiences that heavily influence his work. He is the illustrator of A Monster Calls, in which he used everything from beetles to breadboards to create interesting marks and textures. He lives in England.

Editorial Reviews

McGavin…and Kay…have created a fascinating book about arthropods that poises pop-up engineering and text in admirable balance…the facts are real, but presented with all the tricks and guises of fantasy.

The New York Times - Sarah Harrison Smith

09/02/2013
McGavin and Kay use a scrapbook-style format to explore the diversity and habits of arthropods. Under the watch of a pop-up dragonfly, readers learn about the characteristics of insects, arachnids, crustaceans, and myriapods (centipedes and millipedes) on the opening spread, while subsequent sections focus on their anatomy, growth, and habitats. With the exception of a striking scorpion that unfolds on the final spread, most of the pop-ups are fairly simple and low-key, but there’s still a great deal to discover and learn: a pull-out panel covers hibernation and types of insects that can be found in homes and on people, while a faux newspaper covers the benefits of bugs, from eating pests to spinning silk. Ages 7–10. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

This bug lover’s delight teems with arthropod images and facts. ... [H]atchling naturalists will swarm over this like ants at a picnic.
—Kirkus Reviews

[A] fascinating book about arthropods that poises pop-up engineering and text in admirable balance. Each spread has at least one magnificent pop-up... With Kay’s surprisingly pretty watercolors and trompe l’oeil touches, a handwritten-looking typeface and masses of detail... Beautiful.
—The New York Times Online

From the Publisher

This book explores dragonflies, fiddler crabs, bees, cockroaches, and a host of other insects with pop-ups, pull tabs, and flaps. This pop-up book is an artistic and visual book for budding scientists to pore over. Five large spreads cover topics such as how bugs function, the life of a bug, and where bugs live. The final spread lists ultimate bug superlatives: worst sting (the bullet ant), most explosive (the bombardier beetle), noisiest (a dog-day cicada), and other gross and cool facts. The deadliest creature, the fat-tailed scorpion, is given the final large pop-up, a perfect choice with its large curled tail. Creatively formatted side bars give helpful information such as reasons why the world needs bugs, explanation of life cycles, how bugs protect themselves from predators, and more. This would best fit a home library as an entertaining supplemental book rather than as a resource in a science class. A beautifully done scrapbook of bugs. Reviewer: Emily Griffin

Children's Literature - Emily Griffin

2013-09-25
This bug lover's delight teems with arthropod images and facts. The survey is highlighted by a fat-tailed scorpion rearing up dramatically from one opening and a 3-D cockroach the size of an adult hand on another, its inner as well as outer anatomy depicted in exacting detail. These are no exceptions; Kay's insects, arachnids and other creepy crawlies look lifelike enough to skitter off on their own. McGavin, a veteran entomologist, fills the spaces around them with quick but specific facts about body parts, behaviors, weapons and defenses, life cycles and habitats. A final gallery of his "ultimate bugs" covers record-setting size, speed, venomousness and like need-to-know extremes. The pages are designed to look like crosses between scrapbook leaves and the general clutter in a scientist's desk drawer. Readers may be as dizzied as they are dazzled by the wide array of scripts and typefaces as well as the evident intent to cram as many flaps, foldouts, accordion-folded minibooks, pull tabs, slide-out panels and pop-up cutouts as possible into the book. Almost too much--but hatchling naturalists will swarm over this like ants at a picnic. (Pop-up/nonfiction. 10-13)

Kirkus Reviews