INSECTLOPEDIA

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Florian, Douglas. 1998. INSECTLOPEDIA. New York, NY: Harcourt Brace & Company. ISBN 0152013067

PLOT SUMMARY
This book contains a collection of twenty-one poems about various insects. Each poem is wonderfully illustrated with watercolors and creative collages. Children will learn about unusual insects such as walking sticks and tree hoppers.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Insectlopedia is a great collection of rhythmic poems for beginning readers. Florian’s poems are funny, informative and encourage children to learn about different types of insects. He uses creative text formatting such as in The Inchworm poem. The words, “I inch, I arch, I march along/I’m just a pinch, a mere inch long/I stroll and stick on sticks in thickets, and never pick up speeding tickets” are humpback-shaped to represent the inchworm. The Whirligig Beetles poem is printed in a circle to show how they move. Florian uses different forms of rhyme scheme, such as in the poem, The Ticks. Every line rhymes with the title: “Not gigan-tic/Not roman-tic/Not artis-tic/Not majes-tic/Not magne-tic/Nor aesthe-tic/Ticks are strictly parasi-tic.” The watercolor paintings are playful images of each insect such as in the illustration of the dragonfly. If the reader examines closely, he/she can see the reflection of a dragon in each of the dragonfly’s eyes. The illustration of the monarch butterfly shows the butterfly intertwined in a king’s crown. Florian’s poems are surrounded by white space and presented on one side of the page while the illustrations are showcased on the opposite side. Readers can easily find each poem by the page numbers, which are located on the side of each page. Children as well as adults will enjoy and appreciate Florian’s imaginative, humorous poems as well as his creative illustrations.

REVIEW EXCERPTS
Review in Booklist: “The book is handsomely designed, with each short poem appearing on a large white page across from a full-color illustration. The artwork consists of collages of drawn and painted images and printed letters on paper that is cut and juxtaposed for effect. The clever artwork, deftly constructed, and the entertaining collection of insect and arachnid verse it illustrates will delight readers.”

Review in Kirkus: “Some of the entries rely on clever wordplay, while others are examples of concrete poetry; the text takes on the hump of the inchworm or the spiral movements of the whirligig beetle. The watercolor illustrations, abstract and stylized, achieve a comic effect by incorporating collage elements reminiscent of an entomolgist's field notes.”

Review in Publishers Weekly: “The silly, imaginative verses about whirligig beetles and waterbugs (almost) match the exquisite pictures in playfulness and wit. The result is downright stunning.”

CONNECTIONS
Students can search their house and surrounding neighborhood for insects. They will then complete a chart that will help the students organize the name, physical description, location where found, and any unique characteristics of the insect. The students will share their findings with the class.

Other books by Douglas Florian:
beast feast: poems. ISBN 0152017372
in the swim. ISBN 0152013075
lizards, frogs, and polliwogs. ISBN 0152052488
on the wing. ISBN 0152023666