National Geographic for Kids has put out a new book that teaches children all about the wonders of caterpillars. Filled with incredible, eye catching illustrations, Face to Face with Caterpillars by Darlyne A. Murawski (National Geographic, ISBN 978-1-4263-0052-3) will wow children, parents, teachers, and librarians.
In Caterpillars, children will first learn how Darlyne A. Murawski is able to photograph the underside of an Australian butterfly caterpillar on a sheet of glass. This technique is bound to fascinate older children who enjoy using digital cameras and can be worked into an art lesson by teachers and home schooling parents.
For younger children, there is a list of how to find caterpillars. Read through the list with your child and take a nature walk to see what the two of you can find.
Once kids gain an initial excitement about caterpillars, the book moves on to the life cycle of butterflies and moths. Filled with explanatory photographs, this chapter also gives a diagram of the parts of a caterpillar and explains how caterpillars breathe and see. You will also learn how you can raise a monarch from caterpillar to butterfly following a few easy steps.
What do caterpillars eat? In this next chapter, kids will be amazed to learn that not all caterpillars eat leaves and tomato plants. The Australian butterfly caterpillar, for example, eats ant larva. Some caterpillars eat bugs. The “wax worm” caterpillar eats, of all things, beeswax.
In the chapter on Self-Defense, kids will see the amazing photographs of caterpillars with false faces. Some caterpillars use color camouflage to hide from hungry birds, while the monkey slug caterpillar goes as far as to look like a spider and has false legs sticking out from its sides.
Finally, children will learn how they can help save, preserve, and start a friendly environment for caterpillars. This in itself is a wonderful project that can be done at school or at home. It can be a simple garden with only one or two butterfly or caterpillar friendly plants, or it can be an entire garden project that provides food for hungry caterpillars, flowers for the butterflies, and a warming rock set in the sun.
There are simply not enough good things to say about Face to Face with Caterpillars. It excites children with its incredible photography, showing children strange and unusual caterpillars from around the world. It also gets kids to want to learn more about their local caterpillars and create a caterpillar garden.
Face to Face with Caterpillars belongs in every school and in every home school environment. There is simply no better way to gain children’s interest in caterpillars than by reading this book to them and creating fun activities for each chapter.
