Insects for Kids: A Junior Scientist's Guide to Bees, Butterflies, and Other Flying Insects

Easy to read with good information.

Our little one loves bugs and she loves her bug reference book too. She loves books with real information in them. Real pictures. This series is great because it’s full of great information with out being too wordy. It also have some experiments peppered through too.

This book is great! Each page is an insect with detailed information explained in a clear way using real terms with great photos. My kids love this book!

Here is what Sofia wrote: "I liked the book 'Insects for Kids' because it showed facts about insects I never knew about, and I read 4 pages! The 4th page was about a Sphinx moth. The Sphinx moth has a mouth like a vacuum combined with a paper towel but you would expect it to be more like a straw. My Auntie Gena thought it was a humming bird until I taught her it was a Sphinx moth."Since Sofia, despite being an excellent reader with a large vocabulary has decided recently she does not like to read, I thought it was a good sign that the book held her attention for 4 pages! Hopefully, now that she has earned ownership of the book and can keep it in her room, she'll read more. She has always been fascinated with insects.I gave four stars rather than five because the description of the book's level is very misleading. This is not a book for most 5-7 year olds, or if it is, 7 is definitely not the cut-off age. Luckily, before ordering it, I opened up sample pages and read them. It would take an unusually gifted five year old to read this book, and it is definitely written for the child to read and follow it, not for a parent to read from it. Yes, there are 7 year olds who read that well, but I would say the level begins closer to age 8 and would certainly cover up to fifth grade -- 10-11 years old. It is written in a tone very similar to the 4th grade science book Sofia had in school last year. Would it seem a bit "babyish" in the approach for a sixth grader -- definitely self-designed as one of the big kids in elementary school? Maybe, but the facts would still be interesting to anyone who loves science and especially insects.If you have a 5-7 year old who is interested in insects and science, then go ahead and get the book, but expect to read a lot of it aloud yourself, and then guide the child into doing some of the actual insect collection and observation activities. The photos will be fun, as well.The other slight minus was the use, from time to time, of "tone on tone" for sections of the graphics. High contrast, dark to light and vice versa, is a must so that everyone, even children with vision impairments, can fully enjoy this book. Beginning on page 42, the "light gold"/"dark gold" contrasting headings with small letters begin to be very bothersome in terms of contrast and visibility for anyone with even slightly compromised vision. That pairing was used frequently, although it was not as much a problem earlier in the book, where it was in much larger print, as chapter headings. Graphic designers need to keep in mind that books like these need to be accessible to everyone.On the whole, an enjoyable introduction to the world of insects, with some good sections interspersed throughout helping kids who want to become collectors and junior scientists on how to go about it, using simple and easily available materials. As a long-time teacher and parent of 7 plus 9 grandchildren, I suggest ages 8-11 for independent reading and use.

Great resource boos!

Interesting book with projects for kids. It covers material in more depth than I learned in grade school, and does it in a way which builds on knowledge, never talking down to the reader, but explaining terms as it goes.I agree that the age range assigned is deceptive. I was an extremely early reader, and reading some adult material by the time I was five, but I would just have been ready for this book at that age. My seven year old grandchild, who's smart as a whip, and prefers to read science, not fiction, will not find it beneath her, and I expect her older brother will find it interesting also.I agree with the other reviewer who mentioned the poor graphic design choice of tone on tone type. The red-green color blind person to whom I showed it found it legible, though difficult. It's an unnecessary challenge, which may turn kids off to science, and reading, and I'm sure that's not at all the author's intent.Thank you very much for reading my review. If you found it helpful, I’d appreciate your clicking the button below.

Insects for Kids: A Junior Scientist's Guide to Bees, Butterflies, and Other Flying Insects is a very nice book and could really be used as a textbook for younger children. It is very thorough. When we first saw the book, we just thought it may be a small bit of interesting, light reading for our children, but we quickly realized this is more like a science textbook. This is not a bad thing at all, but just in case anyone is expecting a book that is lighter on the reading for your second or third grader, they may need some assistance with it. It has so many facts on each page and the technical terms are used for each insect. Some words are a little difficult for the child to pronounce but it is a great touch that there is a nice glossary and index for you to find the meanings and everything you need. It is a wonderful book, beautifully illustrated. I would definitely recommend this book for children who are very interested in insects like ours are.

I chose this book to share with my 8 year old granddaughter who is starting third grade but unfortunately she is still too young to appreciate this content. She liked the cool color close-up photos of insects, although the photos are on the small side. She was not interested in the Junior Scientist information, again because she's still a bit young to care about this level of detail. This book seems most suited for fourth grade and older.I received this book for review from Callisto Publishers