Yuck: A Big Book of Little Horrors

This photo-essay shows spread after spread of living, breathing, utterly bizarre landscapes, aswarm with alien creatures--no, it's not science fiction, but everyday items, magnified up to 35,000 times through microscopic photography. As the camera zooms in closer and closer, readers see and learn about dust mites, fungi, parasites and the like. A look at the average toothbrush magnified 200 times, for example, reveals a thriving colony of bacteria, while an up-close-and-personal tour of the breakfast table finds symmetrical crystal patterns in the sugar, as well as glutinous, utterly unappetizing crevasses in the buttered toast. Stunning from a design standpoint, the book's amazing photographs are balanced by generous white space and crisp type. Gatefold flaps on each spread add spice, coyly hiding the nature of the next household ""horror"" until the last possible minute. Snedden's writing is tight, his humor is hip (the section on such creatures as cockroaches and silverfish dares readers to ""come face to face with the nightshift""), and his material is as intriguing as it is instructive. Boldly going where no picture book has gone with such pizzazz before, this one's a winner through and through. Ages 5-10. (May)