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| How Things Work in the Yard |
As bugs begin to flit about and crawl up fingers this spring, children will be racing inside with questions about all that they see.
To help nurture their enthusiasm for nature and activities they love to do in the yard, here are two learning books that will keep them wide-eyed to the last page:
Bugs by the Numbers, an insect book that wows with graphics and facts, and
How Things Work in the Yard, an exploration of creatures and playthings in a child's backyard.
For more about these sweet titles from Blue Apple Books, read my reviews below!
Facts and Figures for Multiple Types of Bugbeasties By Sharon Werner & Sarah Forss
$19.99, ages 4-8, 56 pages
Little entomologists will delight in every page of this clever tribute to tiny creatures that crawl and fly, pester and amaze.
The gals behind the enchanting Alphabeasties and Other Amazing Types promise a myriad of marvels in this number bug book and deliver -- with lots of giggles.
As with that award-winner, Werner and Forss build creatures from numbers of varying size and fonts, and explore facts though fun graphics and flip-out pages.
"Each bug on these pages / Looks unique and rare, / Not like the insects / You see everywhere," reads a poem in the front fold. "They're made up of numbers: / The ones that you count. / 'Cause when you think bugs, / You think BIG amounts."
Though the book is titled
Bugs By Numbers, Werner and Forss let readers know from the start that many of the crawly creatures profiled aren't technically "bugs."
"Real bugs are insects, but not all insects are bugs / And spiders are neither (oh, please don't say, 'Ugh')," they write in a poetic foreword, asking readers in a playful way to forgive the wide net.
One look inside and readers won't begrudge them a bit. Every spread is a blast to scour and makes them giddy to see what's coming next: What insect will it be? What number will fill its body? What wild fact will it lead them to?
The first of the 23 bugs profiled is the tight-waisted ant, which spans two pages and is entirely shaped by the numbers 1, 2 and 3 -- because the ant has 3 body parts: "1. a head, 2. a thorax (chest) and 3. an abdomen (belly)."
On the right side of the two-page spread, readers lift a leaf to watch a line of ants march in the shape of a 50. (An ant can lift that many times its body weight.) Then below, they fold down dirt to see ants tunneling up to 20 feet into the ground.
Other curious facts appear at the bottom of the left page. Did you know that ants have two stomachs -- one for their own food and another for food they share with their colony? inquire Werner and Forss, then add with a wink, "Yummy!"
By Sharon Werner and Sarah Forss
$12.99, ages 6 and up, 64 pages
Our buddy the alligator is eating some odd things that start with the letter "A" and it's up to you to write them down before he gobbles them up.
In this delightful hands-on companion to the Alphabeasties picture book, readers practice their letters and numbers, and even count change, without ever realizing they're working out their brain.
On one page, children are asked to write capital "H's" to fill in a man's hair. On another, they search for "J's" in pictures, include one pair masked as a girl's legs as she jumps for joy.
There are also letter mazes, words to unscramble, tic-tac toes, animals to fill in with the first letter of their name and more than 300 letter stickers to design characters, including an S-shaped snowman.
My favorite worksheets: a page of letters in different typefaces for kids to color in and animate with faces, and a page to make thumbprint pictures that start with the letter "T."
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