Bugs: A Stunning Pop-Up Look at Insects, Spiders, and Other Creepy-Crawlies

This bug lover’s delight teems with arthropod images and facts.

The survey is highlighted by a fat-tailed scorpion rearing up dramatically from one opening and a 3-D cockroach the size of an adult hand on another, its inner as well as outer anatomy depicted in exacting detail. These are no exceptions; Kay’s insects, arachnids and other creepy crawlies look lifelike enough to skitter off on their own. McGavin, a veteran entomologist, fills the spaces around them with quick but specific facts about body parts, behaviors, weapons and defenses, life cycles and habitats. A final gallery of his “ultimate bugs” covers record-setting size, speed, venomousness and like need-to-know extremes. The pages are designed to look like crosses between scrapbook leaves and the general clutter in a scientist’s desk drawer.  Readers may be as dizzied as they are dazzled by the wide array of scripts and typefaces as well as the evident intent to cram as many flaps, foldouts, accordion-folded minibooks, pull tabs, slide-out panels and pop-up cutouts as possible into the book.

McGavin and Kay use a scrapbook-style format to explore the diversity and habits of arthropods. Under the watch of a pop-up dragonfly, readers learn about the characteristics of insects, arachnids, crustaceans, and myriapods (centipedes and millipedes) on the opening spread, while subsequent sections focus on their anatomy, growth, and habitats. With the exception of a striking scorpion that unfolds on the final spread, most of the pop-ups are fairly simple and low-key, but there's still a great deal to discover and learn: a pull-out panel covers hibernation and types of insects that can be found in homes and on people, while a faux newspaper covers the benefits of bugs, from eating pests to spinning silk. Ages 7-10. (Oct.)