Bug Detective

This interactive guide to bugs comes packaged with a plastic magnifying glass, allowing readers to look closely at cartoon stick insects, earthworms, centipedes, snails, spiders, and more. The layout of the pages highlights the insects’ movements, with dotted lines demonstrating the trajectory of flying insects and networks of tunnels in the ground made by beetles (even the text gets in on the action, winding around food items on a picnic-themed spread about ants). Li offers brief overviews of each creature, supplemented by illustrated modules of life cycles, “myth buster” sidebars, and captions for the various insects’ activities. Light anthropomorphic details (dung beetles—“nature’s recyclers”—wear green vests as they load up a recycling truck) should interest younger readers, though the magnifying glass doesn’t reveal anything that can’t be seen with the naked eye. Ages 6–up. (Mar.)