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Behold the Beautiful Dung Beetle

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Behold the Beautiful Dung Beetle

eBook(NOOK Kids)

$6.99

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eBook(NOOK Kids)
$6.99

View All Available Formats & Editions

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Overview

Dung is a precious pile of food and drink for these beetles.

Simple science text and dramatic illustrations give a close-up view of the fascinating world of the dung beetle. When an animal lightens its load, dung beetles race to the scene. They battle over, devour, hoard, and lay their eggs in the precious poop. Dung is food, drink, and fuel for new life—as crucial to these beetles as the beetles are to many habitats, including our own.

Back matter includes instructions for finding dung beetles, fun facts, glossary, and a selected bibliography.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781607347262
Publisher:	Charlesbridge
Publication date:	03/11/2014
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	32
Lexile:	1000L (what's this?)
File size:	56 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	5 - 8 Years

About the Author

Cheryl Bardoe is the author of two Orbis Pictus Honor books, Mammoths and Mastodons: Titans of the Ice Age (Abrams, 2010) and Gregor Mendel: The Friar Who Grew Peas (Abrams, 2006), as well as The Ugly Duckling Dinosaur: A Prehistoric Tale (Abrams, 2011). She lives near Hartford, Connecticut, with her family.

Alan Marks began his career illustrating for magazines and newspapers in England. His first children's book Storm, written by Kevin Crossley Holland, won the Carnegie Medal. Alan now illustrates a wide variety of subjects, from nursery rhymes to war poetry. He is the illustrator of the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award Honor Book A Mother’s Journey, Behold the Beautiful Dung Beetle, Planet Zoo, The Spirit of the Forest, Little Lost Bat, and more. Alan lives in an old house in the Kent countryside with his wife and two daughters.

Read an Excerpt

Somewhere in the world right now an animal
is lightening its load—
in your backyard,
on a nearby farm,
in a forest,
on a grassland far away.

From the B&N Reads Blog

Page 1 of

Editorial Reviews

2014-01-15
Despite its slightly unsavory habits, this important beetle deserves a chance to shine. Bardoe eases into discussing dung by mentioning that an animal, somewhere in the world this very second, is "lightening its load." Beetles flock to one dung pat by the thousands, sometimes getting there a mere 15 seconds after it was dropped. There are three different types of dung beetles—dwellers, rollers and tunnelers—and as Bardoe nonchalantly describes, each "has a different way of enjoying the poop." From rolling smooth balls of dung (and performing acrobatic moves to transport it) to getting into fights to catch the fancy of a mate, these tiny beetles are quite entertaining. Each double-page spread contains text in two fonts: The larger-type text is chatty and informative, while the smaller provides more detail. Both sets are immensely readable. Golden watercolor sunsets and vast open plains surround the text. Compelling close-ups show deep tunnels and every part of the beetle. The exalted tone of the title and cover illustration of a dung beetle in a triumphant, legs-to-the-heavens stance may seem a bit excessive at first. But no doubt by the end, readers will find it difficult not to join in the adulation. An excrement—er, excellent—read. (appended facts, beetle diagram, glossary, bibliography) (Informational picture book. 5-8)

Kirkus Reviews