Face Bug

by J. Patrick Lewis, Kelly Murphy (Illustrator), Fred Siskind (Photographer)

Overview

Come to the grand opening of the Face Bug Museum where readers can join an insect crowd to see amazing close-up photographs of bug faces, meet the bugs featured, and participate in interactive museum exhibits. In this innovative book of poetry, drawings, and photographs, J. Patrick Lewis's sly, humorous poems introduce readers to each of fourteen bugs. Kelly Murphy's black-and-white drawings create a funny visual story about two beetle friends gleefully exploring this memorable museum. In addition, awe-inspiring, dramatic (very) close-up photos of bug faces decorate the museum walls. A book of poetry and photographs and a picture-book story rolled into one, Face Bug is a unique collaboration.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781590789254
Publisher:	Astra Publishing House
Publication date:	03/01/2013
Pages:	36
Product dimensions:	8.80(w) x 10.40(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	6 - 10 Years

About the Author

J. Patrick Lewis is the 2011 winner of the NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children and is the current U.S. Children's Poet Laureate. He has written more than sixty books for children and adults, including If You Were a Chocolate Mustache, Spot the Plot: A Riddle Book of Book Riddles and Please Bury Me in the Library. In Spring 2013, he has two other picture books scheduled: Poemobiles: Imaginary Car Poems (co-written with Douglas Florian, Schwarz & Wade) and World Rat Day: Poems About Holidays You Have Never Heard Of (Candlewick). He lives in Westerville, Ohio.

Frederic B. Siskind's photographs have appeared in Life, National Geographic Kids, Nature's Best, Natural History, Outdoor Photographer, and Birder's World; in children's books on lions, dragonflies, butterflies, caterpillars, fireflies, and amphibians; and in calendars published by Audubon, Teldon, and Shearson. He lives in McLean, Virginia.

Kelly Murphy has illustrated numerous picture books and chapter books, including the New York Times best seller Masterpiece; Secrets at Sea; and the Nathaniel Fludd, Beastologist book series. She teaches at the Rhode Island School of Design and lives in Providence, Rhode Island.

Editorial Reviews

Frederic B. Siskind's wonderfully creepy full-color photographs and Kelly Murphy's cartoony black-and-white illustrations are abuzz with activity alongside J. Patrick Lewis's witty verses about insects and spiders.

The Washington Post - Abby McGanney Nolan

Who says bugs aren’t cute? Lewis zeros in on insects’ best assets in this poetry book with a quirky concept: it’s the grand opening of the Face Bug Museum, which features closeup photos of insects. The accompanying poems are nimble and playful. One praises a feathery Goldenrod Stowaway Moth: “Startled by her beauty, I/ Bend down and whisper, ‘Hello.’/ A moth has perched upon a flower,/ A ‘goldenrod,’ bright yellow.” Museum visitors, ink-drawn cartoon bugs, provide funny side narratives (two butterflies take a break at the museum’s “Nectar Café”), while acting out some of the bug behaviors mentioned in the poems (e.g., a stinkbug lives up to its reputation). Siskind’s extraordinary photographs display every bristle, dew drop, and antenna. After appreciating these intimate portraits, readers will think twice before swatting a fly. Ages 6–up. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

"Bugs get a close-up in this new book of poetry that shows off their thousands of eyes, bucktooth incisors, prickly exteriors and more. Frederic B. Siskind's wonderfully creepy full-color photographs and Kelly Murphy's cartoony black-and-white illustrations are abuzz with activity alongside J. Patrick Lewis's witty verses about insects and spiders. Some bugs are cleverly camouflaged, while others flaunt their colors, but they all have something worth celebrating, even the slimy-seeming Eastern Dobsonfly. . . " — The Washington Post

. . ."There will be many returns to the Face Bug Museum as this book has so much to offer. Wonderfully conceived and executed."—School Library Journal

From the Publisher

K-Gr 5—Visitors to this book get close-up, photographic views of 15 amazing creatures, including the Hickory Horned Devil and the Nursery Web Spider, whose eyes are impossible to avoid counting. "Eight black eyes in a whiskery face,/Eight round eyes in a dark crawl space/That never bother blinking back/Could give a kid a heart attack!" The endnotes, "written" in first person by the various bugs, describe "Where I Live," "How I Grow," "What I Eat," and "What Eats Me" with scientific accuracy and humor. Budding bug fans will love this title. The poems are funny and based on actual bug behavior and attributes, the photographic portraits of the faces and eyes are marvelous, and the ink and graphite drawings guide readers through the museum collection. Murphy's anthropomorphized creatures visit the "Nectar Café" and try on different pairs of glasses to sample being bug-eyed, compound-eyed, eight-eyed. The interactive science museum has gizmos such as cicada sound buttons and a camouflaged Goldenrod Stowaway Moth hidden in a cluster of flowers. Readers will not see bugs again in the same way: "You may think you've seen our Show Bugs in the trees or in the sky,/But you never really know bugs till you look them in the eye." There will be many returns to the Face Bug Museum as this book has so much to offer. Wonderfully conceived and executed.—Teresa Pfeifer, The Springfield Renaissance School, Springfield, MA

School Library Journal

For kids who love bugs! Gruesome but fascinating photomicrographs of 14 different bugs are the focus of this unusual science book that combines poetry, line drawings and scientific facts to bring bugs alive for curious children. The bad puns flow relentlessly as a collection of small bugs, illustrated in rather dated-looking black-and-white line, visits the Face Bug Museum, where they learn to drill like a carpenter bee, experience the stinkbug's stench, sip on nectar at the snack bar and measure the speed of the green darner dragonfly. The insects on display at the "museum"--the hickory horned devil, goldenrod stowaway moth, praying mantis and other exotica--are portrayed in superb, full-color micrographs by renowned nature photographer Siskind. The large close-up of the "Clydesdale of all flies," the American horsefly, is particularly impressive. Humorous poems by U.S. Poet Laureate Lewis describe each insect; of the dogday harvestfly cicada, he writes, "What?! Two faces / On this mutt? / Creepy. Never / Mind his butt." Four pages of backmatter give the insects the opportunity to "narrate" a little more information about themselves. The insect jokes keep going all the way to the author bios, so determined is the book to remain light and accessible. The attempt to present science in a humorous way is a well-meaning one, but the effect seems rather lame for today's visually sophisticated kids and might work better as an app than a book. (Picture book/poetry. 6-10)

Kirkus Reviews