Minibeasts with Jess French: Masses of mindblowing minibeast facts!

by Jess French

Overview

Join CBeebies' Jess French on an exciting tour of marvelous minibeasts.

With her unparalleled zeal for insects, Jess French dives headfirst into the breathtaking world of invertebrates to explore their unbelievable adaptations and evolution and reveal incredible invertebrates from all over the world, from bird-eating tarantulas and glow-in-the-dark scorpions to meter-long stick insects and bat-eating centipedes.

Fancy meeting a foot-long centipede or a spider the size of your dinner plate? With Minibeasts with Jess French, you can do just that from the safety and comfort of your sofa. Learn about the perfect co-evolution of nectar-drinking insects and the flowers they pollinate and discover how minibeasts mate, fight, hide, collaborate, evolve, and survive in the most extreme conditions.

Jess's exuberant text enlightens readers on the fascinating and sometimes intense world of the minibeast, revealing everything from firefly Morse code to mid-flight kamikaze mating.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781472939555
Publisher:	Bloomsbury USA
Publication date:	05/08/2018
Pages:	128
Product dimensions:	7.49(w) x 9.79(h) x 0.38(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Dr Jess French is a passionate zoologist, naturalist and entomologist and presents CBeebies Minibeast Adventure with Jess. Jess grew up helping her dad with his exotic invertebrate-breeding business and became fascinated by minibeasts while caring for scorpions, tarantulas and a host of other creepy crawlies. Jess has degrees in zoology and veterinary medicine and surgery.

@Zoologist_Jess / www.jessfrench.co.uk

Table of Contents

Introducing minibeasts

Part One: Eat

Mouthparts

Finding food

Ingenious feeders

Farmers

Pollination

Bloodsuckers

Part Two: Prey

Attack

Chase me, chase me

Ambush

Venom

Super silk

Web of deceit

Traps

Defence

Projectiles

Camouflage

Marvellous mimics

Colour me toxic

Escape artists

Brute force

Part Three: Love

Courtship

Choosing a mate

Ensuring paternity

Anatomy

Love songs

Fancy footwork

Slugs and snails

Caring for the young

Birthday presents

Birthday cakes

Nests

Mum's the word

Devoted dads

Cuckoos

Glossary

Author acknowledgements

Photo credits

Index

Editorial Reviews

06/01/2018
Gr 5 Up—French wears many hats: zoologist, veterinarian, TV host, author, and, most of all, ardent admirer of a fascinating species she calls minibeast: a nontaxonomic term for minute invertebrate species that have, according to her, "incredible superpowers." Although minibeasts could technically be any invertebrate, French focuses on four types: arthropods, annelids, flatworms, and molluscs. With over 250 close-up photographs and amazingly detailed facts, this book will have readers absorbed in chapters about ant assassin bugs, zombie spiders, Saharan silver ants, and a slimeshooter worm that lives in the rainforest. Found in Malaysia, the Philippines, and Africa (the text doesn't identify any specific countries or regions in Africa), the ant assassin bug is an invertebrate within the Hemiptera order, all of which have curved hollow beaks. It uses its beak to suck juice from the bodies of other ants and then puts the remains onto its back to wear as a coat that acts as camouflage. This browsable title is excellent for pleasure reading and school reports. Included is an abundance of facts and an excellent glossary with more than 60 definitions. VERDICT A must-have for budding minibeast fans.—Joy Poynor, Farmington Public Library, AR

School Library Journal