The Really Fearsome Blood-loving Vampire Bat and Other Creatures with Strange Eating Habits (The Really Horrible Guides) - Hardcover

Grade 2-4?Two broad introductions to small beasts that humans either fear or find disgusting. Both titles employ the publisher's familiar format, but with larger-than-usual photographs and print size. Double-page topic treatments address the creatures' eating habits, defense mechanisms, etc. Sharp, close-up photographs depict about a half-dozen species per section. Adjacent to most photos are short blocks of text; in a frequently awkward arrangement, some sentences curve around the illustrations and appear to be part of the graphic design instead of the narrative. The organization is basically scattershot; no animal or topic is discussed in depth. Also, some of the material presented is oversimplified and thus misleading, especially in Fearsome. For instance, it states that "A snake is basically one stretchy stomach, with a head at one end and a tail at the other"?an anatomical generalization unsupported by any data. The text also declares that "all snakes either paralyze or kill their victim before they start to swallow." This is true of most snake species, but not all. In the section discussing insect young, the text refers to grubs, maggots, and larvae as different types of "newly hatched insects," but grubs and maggots are larvae. In both titles, the captions do not consistently identify the species depicted by common name; for instance, in Hairy, several different types of tarantulas are shown, but they are all simply labeled, "Tarantula." On the whole, books in the "Eyewitness Juniors" series cover many of the same creatures, are better organized, and give more detail on anatomical features.?Karey Wehner, San Francisco Public Library
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

...FOR THOSE WITH STRONG STOMACHS Tapping into the "gross" craze, The Really Horrible Guides are a likely bet to churn the belly and fascinate the foul-at least, they use a horror-movie-style approach to exploring nature. The titles of the first four books tell the story: The Really Fearsome Blood-loving Vampire Bat; The Really Hairy Scary Spider; The Really Wicked Droning Wasp; and The Really Horrible Horned Toad. The publisher's trademark use of close-up photos reaches a whole new level; disbelievers should check out the picture of the bluebottle fly, described as dining on dung, rotting meat "and your sandwich-unless you watch out!"
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.