A few weeks ago I requested from the Special Education teacher the monthly book club news from Scholastic. I received two editions and sat down with my son to make the choices.

Besides the turtle and snake books he chose this four pack Usborne search book set that consisted of:

The Big Bug Search
The Great Animal Search
The Great Undersea Search
The Great City Search

Our price was $12.99. This is available in the May edition online. Using the Gator price helper I found the hardcover lists for $16.95 and the paperback lists for $8.95.

I did a search through the Scholastic website and here is the exact packet of books we received:

http://teacher.scholastic.com/firefly/may/usbornesearch.htm

The paperback is new for $8.05 at amazon and used at half.com for $5.89.

While skimming the Scholastic page for this review I found that you can write a review there as well. I think I might ask my son over the weekend to tell me things about the book and write in his words. By clicking on that link for scholastic you will view a page from the book as well.


With school soon to be out for the summer break and weather perfect for bug exploration this book seemed ideal. We also utilize a magnifying glass for my son to get a better look at the pictures of these bugs.

The Big Bug Search consists of thirty two pages by Caroline Young. The illustrations are by Ian Jackson, designed by Andy Dixon and Edited by Kamini Khanduri. The first edition of this book was published in 1996, Great Britain, by Usborne Publishing Ltd. The first Scholastic printing was in February 1998.

To first understand the book you will find page two most helpful. This explains how the pages are set up. This is a puzzle book and many of the bugs are hidden in the pictures among the background of their surroundings in their daily life. The pages 28-31 have the answers to the puzzles. These are categorized by labeling the bugs with a number within the picture. To the right of each picture is a listing of various bugs with the corresponding numbers. Blister beetles for cactus city found on page 6-7 would be 41, 42, 43, 44, 45 in the picture displayed.

When you open up the following pages there is a picture laid out in the two pages in the middle. The top, bottom and side borders have pictures with descriptions and facts on all the bugs. Some of the pages are horizontal and others are vertical.

Each two-page picture depicts the bugs in various settings. Some of them are between the trees, deep in the jungle, insect city and busy beehive. The index is listed on page 32 with the back cover showing the answers to the puzzle found on the front of the book.

An example of how the index is presented would be scorpions are found on page 7, with water ones on page 15 and whip on page 6. I am not sure what exactly whip means. For butterflies they are listed on page 9 with the common blue ones found on page 5 and common grass yellow on page 13.

Off to page 7 for The Big Bug Search to see how to find the scorpion. Here on page seven it lists cactus city with pictures of orange, black and red bugs. I find the scorpions and the listing in the upper right corner reads, “ Scorpions lurk in cool burrows until the sun sets. Then they go hunting. Spot six ”. The writing of the Scorpions and the spot six are in blue lettering while the rest is in black text. So basically this helps distinguish each bug is listed by name in the blue printed text with the theme or instructions for home type study/schooling in different text for easy perusal.

For each picture you will find approximately one hundred bugs. It is important to teach the youngster that you would not normally find that amount in the same spot. The Big Bug Search is an asset for the child who is learning to count, what a fun way to learn your numbers than by counting bugs! This is also similar to the types of homework we receive from the Kindergarten classroom with the searching for items that are hidden and hard to find. My son is learning the correct terminology in the bug world and helps in the learning process with puzzles and pictures.

For the page Water World there are pictures of diving beetles, adult mayflies, pond snails and dragonfly nymphs. I never knew that adult mayflies never eat. They just mate, lay eggs and die. “ Whirlgig beetles can look into the air and under the water at the same time”.

Now each morning on the way to school my son is engrossed in his surroundings and wants to look for bugs and creatures. This week they are also working in the garden at school so he is able to share what he has learned from The Big Bug Search .

In the insect city picture I learned about how the worker termites take the eggs to parts of the nest while the soldier termites keep guard. I was happy to know that they will eat the fungus that grows in the “fungus garden”. For the busy beehive page you will learn how they collect nectar and pollen to make honey. There are pictures showing what cells look like with larvae in them and when full of honey. I certainly hope we will never have to utilize this information.

On page 26 Around the world shows a map with a diagram of the bugs found in each region of the world. The next page is the Big bug puzzle with six rows of bugs labeled from A-E. An example of the questions would be Which of these bugs is a caterpillar? The student/child can circle the letter of the alphabet and compare their hunches with the answers on page 32.

This search book series will provide countless hours of exploring, learning, counting and memorizing of every name listed in here for my son. I feel he will be having fun this summer as well as experimenting with the outside world of bugs, beetles and the like from the knowledge taken from The Big Bug Search .

By looking through the pages with the pictures he has learned where to find certain spiders, what color trees some bugs like to hang out while others like the water scenery best.

For the child who is a beginning reader this will be more of an interactive book with an Adult to read and help with the search of where each bug is lurking. With a magnifying glass a child can explore further. With this being a large paperback book you can use a pen or pencil to circle those that are of interest and answer the questions. My son likes to use a highlighter or marker to note his favorites.

Kids have lots of questions and with the help of The Big Bug Search I am able to offer many of those being asked about bugs. For any parent of a boy with an interest in the outdoors that has a fascination with bugs, beetles, spiders and butterflies this would be an ideal graduation type gift or a happy summer days book.

For parents this is an ideal book to spend some time with your child or when they are visiting relatives or friends over the summer vacation worth packing for help in exploring their new surroundings. If a child is going to camp this would make an ideal addition to their reading material.

Since my son loves watching Animal Planet and Wild Discovery on the Discovery channel he will now be able to state facts about the bugs when those type of shows air during this summer. If you know of a youngster who likes the rain forest, the desert and wants to know what types of bugs lurk in those parts, this would come in handy.

If you are a homeschooler or work in a day care setting The Big Bug Search might be a welcome addition for your library.

Recommended: Yes