THE BOOK OF TINY CREATURES

Detailed, colorful watercolor art accompanies pages of information about the smallest members of these groups: mollusks, annelids, and arthropods.

A pleasingly designed table of contents lists titles and subheadings for five chapters, plus these backmatter pages: “The insect orchestra,” “Answers to questions,” and “Index of tiny creatures.” Each chapter begins with a selection of facts about its specific topic, then presents ways for young naturalists to further explore tiny creatures. The text is graceful, and vocabulary and systems including metamorphosis, larvae, molt, elytra (elsewhere, confusingly, called elytrons), parthenogenesis, hemolymph, and stridulate are clearly explained. However, such words as articulated, undulate, and inseminated will not necessarily be understood in context. Oddly, occasional quizzes pop up, with terse answers at the book’s end—and no explanations in the text. The same two children grace each chapter, one Asian-presenting and one White-presenting, both with sweetly flushed cheeks. Emphasis is on European flora and fauna, but there is plenty of crossover into North America. Entomologists are still trying to learn whether painted ladies and monarchs make their mythic, long migrations as individuals or in generations, but the text reports only the more dramatic idea of one butterfly traveling thousands of miles to and from its hatching grounds. Gentle humor and deep respect for tiny creatures—plus, inexplicably, lobsters—comes through in a book well suited for browsing.

Effectively demonstrates that small can be fascinating.