Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
About Arachnids: A Guide for Children
Illustrator: John Sill
Nonfiction
For ages 6 to 8
Peachtree Publishers, 2006 ISBN: 978-1561453641
Many of us think, incorrectly, that spiders are insects. It is true that spiders and insects are related, but spiders actually belong to a very interesting group of animals called the arachnids. All these creatures have skeletons on the outside of their bodies, they all have eight legs, and most are predators. Some of the arachnids are capable of giving humans very dangerous stings or bites, but most are harmless. They come in all kinds of shapes and sizes from the large furry spiders that are as big as the palm of your hand, to the tiny mites and ticks that are hard to see without the help of a magnifying glass.
This book is a superb guide for children because it can be enjoyed on many levels. Very young children will enjoy looking at the wonderfully detailed illustrations, and beginner readers will be able to manage the simple text that accompanies them. For older readers there is a section in the back of the book in which the author describes the fifteen species shown in the illustrations in more detail, thus giving older children a lot more information about arachnids which will interest and often surprise them.
