Reading Level: Grade 1 Interest Level: Grades K – 3
Some adult dragonflies can fly as fast as 60 miles per hour—a common speed limit for cars on a highway! Quick flight is essential for them to catch prey in midair. In this children’s title, readers will travel alongside dragonflies moving from page to page.
'In this attractive early reader, Perish presents basic information about the dragonfly. Despite its length, the book is set up like a traditional nonfiction book with a table of contents, pictorial glossary, index, and bibliography. The author gives the insect’s physical description, habitat, diet and life cycle in a succinct manner, as is typical of books in the Blastoff Readers series. The stunning photographs complement the text and the reader sees full-page images of the insect on each two-page spread. One can see why this particular series is called Insects Up Close after examining the pictures, like the one which shows the size of the dragonfly’s eyes. There are also some inset images, which are used to further explain such terms like nymph and molting. Other interesting photographs include a dragonfly swimming underwater and one eating a mosquito. Children will enjoy poring over the photos. This series includes a web resource called Factsurfer. Readers are told to enter the term into the search box and get a list of websites. One link from the San Diego Zoo did not have the referenced article and one site contained ads. There are other books in the “Insects Up Close” series, which follow the same format. Also examined were Cicadas, Grasshoppers, and Ladybugs. THOUGHTS: This series is a great addition to any library collection serving children, despite the problem with the web resources. These texts would be useful in science units on insects and children will enjoy reading them for personal interest. They are a good choice for emerging readers.', Denise Medwick, West Alleghency School Districtt
