Spider Books

This has become one of my favorite children's stories of all time. The story of a boy who can't seem to do anything right but in the end saves the town - by accident. And also of a town that learns not to judge people, but rather to accept them for who they are. I have read this to many children in the grade school I work at and they all love it. In their own way, each of them can feel what it is like to walk in Jackie's shoes. The illustrations are wonderful too.

This is a sweet book with a lovely moral tale to it. It is also beautifully illustrated by Wayne McLoughlin ~~ perfect short story to share with all kids ~~ old and young.

Jackie is so clumsy that he trips over his feet all the time. He doesn't mean to but he just does. No matter what he does, he falls or disturbs something. One year, the fireflies that always bring spring never came. People started losing hope that summer would never come again. Jack gets teased by some kids in town when he kept falling on the ice while ice-skating. So he runs away. And that is the beginning of a lovely story.

This story brings to the point of how sometimes when you're the most clumsiest, that is when you are full of life and grace. It doesn't matter who you are ~~ and no matter how clumsy you are, there will always be someone who loves you. This story illustrates that.

It is a lovely story ~~ perfect to give to the one you love and to your children to share over and over. It'd make a wonderful Christmas present...

Our son (who is 9) really enjoyed this story of a 9 year old boy who discovers firelies. It is a quick read, and the illustrations are lovely.

The Firefly Encyclopedia series are uniformly excellent. There are several current volumes (Insects & Spiders, Reptiles & Amphibians, and Birds). With luck additional volumes will be added (I'd be especially keen to see one on fishes). The series picks up the tradition started with the David Macdonald's "Encyclopedia of Mammals" by having numerous experts contribute information about the organisms they study. Thus, each species or group of organisms is described by the scientists who know them best. The result is a truly amazing compilation of information about each type of organism.

The Insects and Spiders volume contains information from 23 separate contributors about all types of insects and spider-like creatures. Contents include:

Overview of Arthropods: 6 pages
Millipedes and Centipedes: 6 pages
Insects, general information: 14 pages
Separate sections on (sections without indicated page lengths usually 2-3 pages long): Bristletails, Mayflies, Dragonflies & Damselfies, Cockroaches (4 pages), Termites, Mantids (4 pages), Earwigs, Stoneflies, Crickets & Grasshoppers (12 pages), Leaf & Stick Insects, Booklice and Webspinners, Zorapterans & Thrips, Parasitic Lice, Bugs (16 pages), Snakewings & Alderflies, Lacewings, Beetles (16 pages), Scorpionflies, Fleas, Flies (16 pages), Caddisflies, Butterflies & Moths (24 pages), Wasps & Ants & Bees (24 pages)
Arachnids, general information: 4 pages
Spiders: 14 pages
Mites & Ticks: 6 pages
Scorpions & other Arachnids: 4 pages

The book is lavishly illustrated. There are tons of amazing photographs and lots of beautifully rendered drawings. The text is well written and generally easy to follow. Some sections are fairly technical (I have a Ph.D. in Biology and got lost a few times), but probably 90% or more should be accessible to anyone. I strongly recommend this book for biologists, naturalists, and people interested in wildlife. It would make an excellent gift for a young person (probably junior high +) who likes animals.

Also ten stars, if possible! No more words needed, this an excellent compilation on insects and arachnids. Beautiful pictures, tons of information, diagrams and charts. Just like the other book from Firefly "Reptiles and Amphibians", this is one of the best encyclopedias to have in your personal library. Marvelous book, indeed.

finally i found it. THE BEST INTRODUCTORY ENTOMOLOGY BOOK! My father has a new-found interest in insects, and I spent all of the Christmas season trying to find an entomology book that was informative, yet concise and visually stimulating. This book is FAR OUT. It has great photographs and HIGHLY educational, without going into boring list/description jargon. This book is great for anyone interested in insects or just an entertaining read.

We never thought a science fair project could be so silly and fun. And, my kids learned about cooking too!

Reading the Science Spiders books is like going to the dentist. So why did I rate the books so highly? I have a very good dentist. He's friendly, interesting, and before we're finished with the small talk, he's finished with the injection. The worst part of going to the dentist is over before I know it's happening. The Science Spider books are simple, playful stories about a patient, scientifically inclined mom and her young children. The readers don't realize they're learning science until after it happens. My jaw gets numb just thinking about it. There's no math, but readers of all ages become familiar with chemical reactions, color theory, acids, bases, forces, energy, molecules, scientific method, air pressure, and center of gravity. The lucky children who are introduced to science by the Science Spiders will have a positive feeling for the subject that can only help them in future studies. Dr. Kain has a Ph.D in materials science and engineering. She barely conceals her identity in the books as "Mom." Mom is an excellent role model for all children, but especially girls. She and her kitchen experiments prove that science is very much woman's work. And apparently, so is dentistry.

Rick Kamen, author of HEIRLOOM STORIES FROM THE HARNESSMAKER'S SON

The "Science Spiders" series by Dr. Kain is a unique collection of books for kids who are ready to reach for their first experiences in science. One of the books, 'First Science Fair' is a delightful recipe for fun that provides a simple framework for developing the way kids think about doing scientific experiments. From the first observations of the Spider Family on the quality of their Mom's cupcakes (pretty bad!), to the final triumph of brother Pro's entry into a science fair, the story builds on tasty cupcake chemistry and common sense. "First Science Fair's" menu of kitchen science and math will clearly wet the appetites of kids who are just waiting for the chance to combine the right ingredients for their own first experiments.

I received this book as a gift, one that I opened early because the person I received it from (a well-read scientist) has particularly good taste in books. And this book was no exception; well written, illustrated, and developed...it was over and done with in a couple of fine evenings. I was amazed at how engaging this book was, in itself a study of writing about the natural sciences. It is the story of the honey bee and Homo sapiens over the millennia, developed over the pages into a fascinating multi-dimensional picture of our evolving understanding of that important creature and of ourselves. That is, this is not a book parroting facts along an expected track and thesis. It is a book more about how we know what we know about honey bees through the questions asked by researchers and the ways they went about devising apparatus to answer those questions. It also well illustrated how science in general really works, in the defense of such conclusions in the reviewed journals as the course of science demands. Thus, it contains gems of problem development and solving, of data collection and logic, and of the surprising insight peer review can sometimes cast upon what looks like a done deal. Even more importantly, it shows how such peer inquiry can actually firm up a conclusion, and lead to even greater understanding. Its science, done up right, staring the remarkable honey bee.
Five jars! (mmm...stars :))

The authors, in laying out an engaging and thorough discussion of bees, their 'honey dance', and other elements of highly structured language, illuminate the broader question of how animals experience and learn. The folklore -- and wonderful pictures -- will make this book a pleasure for nature lovers, while students of language and of the scientific process will enjoy it for the window it provides into how classical experiments are used to probe cognition and learning. Despite the apparently narrow scope of the title, I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys popular-press books on science: there's a lot of wonderful material here, and its not hard to get at and enjoy.

Honey bees are among the most complex of the extant protostomes, and their behavior and central nervous system has been studied in some detail. This easy to read reference describes beekeeping, the life cycle of the bees and the bee hive, communication by pheromes, communication by sound, communication by the bee's 'dance language', navigation by a sun 'compass', navigation by a polarized light 'compass', navigation by landmarks, possible navigation by a magnetic 'compass', flower learning and memory, matching from memory, visual memory, and the possibility of limited insight in bees.

Crompton, John, 1987 .2nd edition. "The Hunting Wasp"--Little Known, Shocking Similarities Between Insects and Humans. Nick Lyons Books, New York, New York. 240 pages.



The Hunting Wasp is a classical work of natural history published more than 50 years ago and still in print. John Crompton, an English author and a natural historian. It was written in 1955, with two subsequent editions published in 1987 and 2004. The fact that there are new editions of the Hunting Wasp proves that this piece of work is of high quality and that the audience appreciates its context, despite the fact that scientific research being conducted nowadays has surpassed the observations Crompton describes. The book still finds its way to the hearts of the readers which, in my opinion, is a tribute to the story telling, clear style of Crompton's writing.

The structure of the book follows the behavior of different subfamilies of the Sphecidae family of wasps, mainly those of Ammophila and Cerceris, in various situations. It focuses on how wasps obtain food for their offspring, underlining the fact that these insects have the capability of attacking and killing insect species much stronger and larger than themselves. Each chapter of the book shows how a wasp deals with a certain type of insects, whether it is a fly or a caterpillar, or a humongous praying mantis or a cockroach. Crompton typically compares and contrasts observations made by three entomologists, Fabre and the Peckham couple, who have spent significant time studying wasps, combing these observations with his own comments. This is particularly interesting as it gives a reader, especially the one not familiar with the process of scientific research, a chance to familiarize oneself with it and also the fact that scientific observations done in a similar manner can often lead to very different results. I liked very much the way in which Crompton wrote this book, because the vocabulary he chose in explaining his observations was equally suitable for a biologist and a more general reader. I did find the reading to be somewhat difficult at times, due to differences in British and American English, as well as some old fashioned vocabulary and grammar structures he sometimes uses. I also found the authors attempts to be poetic a little overwhelming at times ("And now I think, without further preliminaries, we will go straight into the arena and watch the fight", p.50)

What amazed me the most while reading The Hunting Wasp was that insects, those creatures we find annoying and useless most of the time, are such intelligent little beings. Some parallels that the author drew between the ways humans and wasps react in certain situations were truly shocking and I couldn't help but think how we take the insects for granted and how little credit we usually give them. One of the most interesting moments were graphic descriptions of how wasps capture the prey and bring it to their offspring. The way in which they plan out the process, go about the execution and carry it out does not differ much from what humans do. The authors describes in detail how wasp goes about targeting and hitting the correct nerve regions in the victim in order to inject the poison and paralyze it. What makes it even more difficult to believe is the insects' "knowledge" of the anatomy of various insect species; they know exactly what spot will be the most adequate and effective for a certain type of the prey. They know that caterpillars are best immobilized by injecting poison in each one of the segments, whereas this is unnecessary if the victim is a beetle, in which case one shot of poison in the right place fully immobilizes it. Another illustration of wasps' intelligence was a graphic description of how the insect builds its house. Reading about how it measures and judges the distances between the entrance and the back of the room to see whether the captured prey will fit in, and how it chooses different shapes and sizes of stones and grass while building the shelter for their babies, inevitably leads us to question the popular belief that humans are the only species capable of rational thinking.

I believe that the author's attempts to bring the insect life closer to the readers was mostly successful due to the approach he chose; rather that bombarding a reader with textbook facts, he interwove the language accessible to everybody and the sufficient amount of observations and facts, so that the material presented sounds credible to both an entomologist and a car mechanic. This is the skill that most of the writers of the books with scientific topics either neglect or do not possess at all. I also felt that the book was a prefect choice for the class I'm taking this semester, because it mainly deals with the behavioral aspects of insects, which combined with the mostly anatomical/physiological approach of the class, makes the overall picture much more complete. For all these reasons, I would certainly recommend "The Hunting Wasp" to anybody interested in learning more about the insect life.

Crompton's books get excellent reviews in the press. That's why I bought "The Hunting Wasp" several years ago. I didn't read it until recently, however, and then only because I found myself without other reading material one evening. I figured that any book on insect life is bound to pall after the first few pages, no matter how great the reviews.

Not true. Crompton's accounts of the lives and loves of hunting wasps are cliff-hangers, filled with blood lust, love gone bad, murder and mayhem, the sacrifices of motherhood, and adventure. I love this book.

It helps that John Crompton is an extraordinarily gifted writer and witty to boot. Describing the courtship of crickets (which are the prey of certain hunting wasps), he writes, "While the cricket sits fiddling, thinking only of his art, a female appears before him. He is disconcerted and shy and she is shy too, but timidly their antennae touch. After that they sit for hours fondling one another and then, after a last caress, the female goes away. But she returns, or he goes to her, and henceforward the affair proceeds with gathering tempo until they find themselves in each others' arms so to speak and the union proceeds. When he has recovered a little from the exhaustion caused by these nuptials, he scrapes a gentle note on the Stradivarius. Alas, the tune that once so thrilled the bride leaves her unmoved now. Indeed, it irritates her, and irritates her so much that she springs at him and smashes his violin. If he is wise he will not prolong the honeymoon. Nothing is more obvious than that his newly wed wife has conceived a violent aversion for him. Her transient love of music too has gone. He has done the only thing that interests her and she has no further use for him. He will get more than his violin broken if he stays."

Wonderful stuff. So good that I've ordered his books on spiders, bees and ants so I can continue reading these spellbinding sagas of the insect world.

You would never expect that a book about wasps could possibly be interesting, if you think bugs are disgusting little critters for which Raid is the best tool of study. That's what I thought until I happened to leaf through Crompton's little volume. To my amazement, he made the strange world of these beasties fascinating. And he has a wonderfully witty way of describing them in semi-human terms. They're even more disgusting than I thought they were, but he opened my eyes to an extraordinary part of the world around me. A Disney world, it isn't. More like a Stephen King world. But his sense of humor makes it all bearable. Tree-huggers and condo inmates, read Crompton or be stung by ignorance! -- Tom McDonough

I picked this book up at the local library as I am keenly interested in the monarch migration story-- who wouldn't be? But this story adds a depth to the tale of animal migration. It's about love, loss and letting go. Absolutely beautiful illustrations along with a simple, yet powerful story which leaves the reader with a sense of inner peace about the natural world. And over all, it lends this feeling of how fortunate we are to be alive and living on this planet we call Earth! I will be purchasing many copies of this book to offer as gifts to my friends and family members of all ages.

I found this book in the public library when I was picking books to read with a grandchild. I liked it so much I ordered two copies. I live in Wichita Falls, Texas, which is mentioned in the book as a major stopping spot in the monarch migration to Mexico. Not every year but very often there are thousands of butterflies that cling to my mother's house and seem to drip from the trees near the backyard pond. They are amazing.

Each fall the beautiful orange and black monarch butterflies migrate two thousand miles from Canada to Mexico. The facts about this migration are explained by Antoine O Flatharta in the Afterword to "Hurry and the Monarch," where young readers will learn about how each monarch begins life as a tiny egg on the underside of a milkweed leaf. However, it is the monarchs that are born in early autumn that end up making the long journey to Mexico, where they travel from 50 to 125 miles in a single day until they arrive in the fir forests of Mexico in early November and blanket the forest with millions of orange colored wings. Whereas the usual life span of a butterfly is four to six weeks, the monarchs that journey to Mexico usually live up to eight months and sometimes more. Compare this to the life of a land tortoise, which can live up to 100 years or more. That comparison is apt because in "Hurry and the Monarch" one of the beautiful butterflies makes friends with a tortoise named Hurry.

The facts about the migration of the monarchs are certainly interesting, but the story illustrated by the watercolors of Melo So will make a bigger impression on young readers. The story begins when Hurry, who lives in Wichita Falls in the northern part of Texas, finds one October than a monarch butterfly has landed on his back. She is much more interested in him than he is in her, wondering why he does not break out of his shell, grow wings, and fly away (after all, that is what happened to her). Both creatures are affected by the coming cold weather, but while the monarch flys south to warmer lands, the tortoise just sleeps and waits out the winter. Then the monarch joins her comrades and flies south to Mexico. Melo So is able to contrast the orange and black of the monarch butterflies with the green and yellow of the world in which they live their transitory lives. Working with a rather simple palette of colors So creates a series of lovely watercolors bringing Flatharta's story to life.

As you might expect in such a tale, the monarch returns one morning in the spring to Hurry's garden on her way back north to Canada. She lays eggs on a milkweed plant and flies away. There is a poignant end to her journey, but the emphasis in the story is now on the newborn caterpillar that Hurry watches grow and then transform into a new monarch. The ending of the story continues the lyrical narrative spun and older readers will better appreciate how Hurry and the new monarch butterfly part ways at the end. Flatharta has a nice sense of subtlety in telling this story, beginning with the wry irony of the names but more importantly in terms of how he involves the readers in the story by leading them to certain things without necessarily telling them outright. This simple story about the life cycle of the monarch butterfly has a nice sense of depth, which lifts it to a higher level as a children's book.

This book has been the favorite of my twin 17-month old girls since they were about 9 months. Their favorite thing to do is to try to bite the caterpillar's head off as I'm reading them the story. I read it to them in the voice of the caterpillar from A Bug's Life and they think it's just hilarious. Sometimes, I even ad lib the story line as they try to grab the caterpillar and bite him (and my finger- ouch!).

I'm not all that big on the story line personally, but they go into laughing hysterics everytime we read it, so by that count, it's a great book.

This is my son's favorite book, and he is 1 year old. When reading the book, he loves to turn the pages, and "kiss" the caterpillar. He also is constantly smiling during reading time. Great book! We love it!

This is by far my children's favorite book (ages 1 and 3). They are always grabbing it and wanting people to read it to them. My 3 year old will say the lines being read. They both laugh while my husband reads the book in a funny "caterpillar" voice. It's fun and interactive.

The bases of the book is this little caterpillar is trying to figure out what he is going to be when he grows up and what is right for him.. in the end he figures it out :)

This book has been a good accompaniment to my preschool classroom bug habitat. It tells the story of the life of a pill bug in a clear and fun way that my students enjoy very much.

This is a fantastic book- the illustrations are wonderful and it is written in a fun yet informative (not dumbed-down) style.

The beautiful illustrations and touching story which is told in first person, or should I say "first pill bug" make this a outstanding story. Great book to use in a classroom.

I bought this book as a gift for my daughter who studied with the author. Peggy Macnamara is the resident artist at the Field Museum in Chicago. Her drawings are amazing.

Peggy McNamara and the people at the Division of Insects at the Field Museum have produced a wonderful book on the insects and spiders of Illinois. The paintings are beautiful and the text informative. The book gives the reader an appreciation of the little forms of life that inhabit the state of Illinois. Perhaps this book will keep people from stepping on or spraying an insect or spider when they know more about it.

Maggie Daley wrote the introduction but I don't think she should be listed as first author of the book.

Superb. Ms. Macnamara's illustrations of small, complex and beautiful creatures are wonderful. She teaches drawing and painting at the Field Museum. Her teaching style is rare: individualized and comprehensive. No secret techniques. A rich study of materials. Also co-author of a book on wildlife painting. A highly skilled person who pays exquisite attention.

This book relates some of the observations that Alcock made when he converted his grassy lawn in front of his Arizona house from grass to desert flora. In his neighborhood, residents dutifully maintained wide swaths of green grass through continuous fertilizing, watering, cutting, and trimming. They controlled pests and weeds through spraying, but if they missed one chemical treatment or watering, unwanted species would begin to take over. When Alcock first moved to the area, he went along with local custom for several years. Finally, he asked himself why he was working so hard to maintain grass at such high economic and environmental costs, when it was really the desert surroundings that he enjoyed. It took some effort to kill his lawn and replace it with a yard filled with thriving desert species, but maintenance eventually became much easier and cheaper once he had landscaping fit for the local environment.

As an entomologist, Alcock greatly enjoys observing the insect life in his new yard. In this book, as well as describing how he transformed his yard, he also describes such insects as ladybugs, praying mantises, earwigs, desert termites, paper wasps, bees, grasshoppers, inchworms, whiteflies, mayflies, and aphids. The book is arranged into chapters by topic, including chapters on insects that control pests, compost lovers, insects that sting, camouflage experts, alien insects, and migrating insects. In reading the book, I was struck by how fascinating the lowly insect species can be. The book is written in an informal style appropriate for general readers. It is illustrated with black and white drawings by Turid Forsyth. Scientific sources are listed in a bibliography at the end of the book (but not referenced directly in the text), and there is an index.

I thoroughly enjoyed this intersting, thought provoking book from John Alcock. His thoughts on the modern American lawn should be required reading in the suburbs. The world would be a better place if all would read and comprehend his thoughts on connecting ourselves to the myriad wonders that go on all around us every day.

John Alcock loves Nature. Sometimes, though, getting from a suburban home to the wilderness he relishes can be tedious. So he brought some of his favoured Sonoran Desert environment to his front yard. Using a ramshackle Kubota tractor, he stripped away the layer of Bermuda grass surrounding his house. Over time, and with no little effort, he transformed that yard into a little pocket of desert environment. All this was more than an exercise in redecorating, however. Alcock studies insects, especially their mating rituals, and this transplanted environment gave him ample opportunity. Even if his practice of crouching over desert shrubbery at odd hours raised a few neighbourhood eyebrows.

Alcock loves what he does, imparting his passion to us with lively prose. His academic background merges with his expressions of feeling to keep this book a delight to read. This blending places his writing skills in a comfortable [and comforting] niche somewhere between E. O. Wilson and John McPhee or David Quammen. He keeps you at ease as he builds the desert floor, inserts shrubbery and vegetables, and welcomes the bird and insect visitors to his creation. He protects the native species of plants and animals where possible, but doesn't summarily reject harmless exotics. And he carefully explains how to tell the difference.

The underlying reason for the garden's transformation was to attract insects. Alcock is at his best in watching, analysing and explaining the life styles of desert bees, wasps, beetles and the rest. How did they develop those behaviours? What do their activities it mean to us humans, who are too often ardently killing the ones in our own gardens. He poses his questions with the puzzlement of fresh discovery. Then, adroitly picking through the available evidence - while calling out for further studies - he sifts through the optional answers to deliver the most likely, and most logical scenario. Yet, at no point are you being "lectured to". Instead, you are introduced to some of the awesome array of variation nature offers. This is no specialist's daunting lecture, but the confessions of a man who finds wonder in small things. It's also, of course, an example for any reader to enter his own yard to consider restoring it some state of origins instead of developer's artificiality.

Alcock's view of his environment isn't wholly without concerns, however. There's no question of his concern for the impact of unrestricted "development". Phoenix, the urban hub of his home in Tempe, is one of the fastest growing cities in the US. With reconstructed landscapes, imported species, proliferating golf courses and a staggering consumption of water, this emblem of "progress" is another urban blight on the landscape. Alcock is uncomfortable with this situation, but nearly helpless to block it. His example of bringing some of the countryside into the city and restoring a bit of balance at a time is an example we should all consider carefully. His book's photo collection will make every gardener smile knowingly. The illustrations portray the object of his studies. With this combination he has produced an example of what a single individual [with some spousal support] can achieve, and told us all about it in this fine book. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]