Saturday, June 5, 2010

Books About Pill Bugs

Ticia's Science Sunday post at Adventures in Mommydom, prompted me to order in a couple of Pill Bug books at the library, this week. Our climate here is pretty dry (or at least it's always been dry, until this spring), and so we don't see many of the roly poly creatures, but I thought the kids might enjoy reading about them anyway.

We ended up with A Pill Bug's Life by John Himmelman. The children enjoyed Himmelman's story-like style, and it was full of a lot of facts, but I thought his illustrations made the tiny crustaceans look kind of creepy.

I preferred the photographs in Raintree Sprouts' Pill Bugs by Monica Hughes. Raintree Sprouts is a series of nonfiction books intended for the K-1 classroom, and if this book is any indication of the quality of the series, we will be looking for more. Each page has only one to two short sentences, to go with large, clear, color photos, but there is a lot of information packed into those sentences.




By happy coincidence, we had a sun break, on the same day the books arrived in at the library, and crossed paths with a Roly Poly, in our own backyard. By afternoon it was pouring again, so the window for encountering this bug was small, making it a treasured find. Apparently, all the rain is bringing the Roly Polies out of hiding, which is so much better than looking under rocks, and leaf piles for them - where there might also be a rattlesnake!





For more children's book reviews, and recommendations, check out Feed Me Books Friday at The Adventures of Motherhood, or the What My Child is Reading blog hop, hosted by Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns, guest hosted this week by Debbie at Children Grow, Children Explore, Children Learn.




It's great to be a homeschooler.

8 comments:

Ticia said...

My kids are so incredibly disappointed because there are no books about them at our library. And I'm just not willing to buy one/haven't seen one at a book store yet.

Debbie said...

So you found some pill bugs! They are always found in our mud room at certain times of the year. I guess I would rather have them then something else moving in.

Thank you for linking up this week!

Valerie @ Inner Child Fun said...

How neat!!!! Pills bugs can be so fascinating!

Rose said...

I've always had a fascination with and fondness for pill bugs. I remember finding them when I was a child and have made sure I point them out to my own children. My youngest (age 3) found one several weeks ago and was so fascinated.

Aspiring Mom2three said...

I loved playing with Pill Bugs when I was growing up, and my kids did the same when they were little. I had not seen any books on them before. I may have to look for them this next school year, because I'm taking some much needed time off school.

Thanks for stopping by my blog and leaving a comment! It's always great to hear from others. Even though we just finished on Friday, I'm already on the prowl for curriculum for this upcoming year. Our daughter will be a junior this year and our son a 7th grader!

Christy Killoran said...

The first time I heard of pill bugs was when I read Ticia's post about them. I have no idea if we have them here in MA. I guess it's time to do some research!

Janna said...

Oh my precious roly polys! I spent so much time looking under rocks and logs and bringing these guys in the house! Thanks for stirring up the memories.

Chrissy said...

So fun! We love pill bugs! My son looks for them everyday! I did a DIY Science @ Home post a little while back on pill bugs because of my son's interest in them. Thanks for the great book recommendations, we haven't read any of those yet!