  | Secret life of the woolly bear caterpillar (Secret life (Boyds Mills Press)) Author: Pringle, Laurence | |
| Price: $21.86 | ||
Summary:
All about those fuzzy orange-banded caterpillars, including their life cycle, body structure, habits, and habitat.
| Illustrator: | Paley, Joan |
| Accelerated Reader Information: Interest Level: LG Reading Level: 4.30 Points: .5 Quiz: 170861 | Reading Counts Information: Interest Level: 3-5 Reading Level: 5.30 Points: 3.0 Quiz: 63462 | |
Reviews:
Kirkus Reviews (02/15/14)
School Library Journal (04/01/14)
Booklist (04/01/14)
Full Text Reviews:
School Library Journal - 04/01/2014 K-Gr 3—In this picture-book equivalent of watching a nature documentary, Bella, a woolly bear caterpillar eats, molts, and eats again in a months-long journey through forests, gardens, and lawns. Potential perils come in the form of a garter snake, a blue jay, and a passing car, though Bella gets through the dangers intact. Italicized insect terms are smoothly incorporated into the story, such as how the three pairs of her "true legs" attached to her thorax allow her to hold a leaf steady when she chews and help her climb. Colorful cut-paper drawings bring Bella and her world to life, emphasizing the texture of her fuzzy-looking black-and-orange body and gloriously displaying the wingspan of the tiger moth she becomes. Further information and a diagram of a woolly bear caterpillar are included in the back matter, all the better to satisfy insect-loving readers.—Joanna K. Fabicon, Los Angeles Public Library - Copyright 2014 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.
Booklist - 04/01/2014 Pringle (Scorpions!, 2013) informatively narrates the life of a banded woolly caterpillar called Bella, so named for its species, the Isabella tiger moth. Readers are introduced to the caterpillar’s anatomy, behavior, and life cycle, following Bella from molting to cocoon to her metamorphosis into a moth that, in turn, lays eggs. Inviting, colorful mixed-media illustrations cover each large page, depicting detailed Bella as she climbs; stiffens her woolly “hairs” against a potential snake attack; and searches for a safe, secret place to wait out the winter and build her cocoon. Each page presents plenty of material for discussion, and an afterword offers more information on banded woolly caterpillars and a glossary of terms used in the text. Since Pringle includes some advanced scientific terms, such as stemmata and glycerol, this would be best read aloud by a skilled reader. With that assistance, newly independent readers will be in good shape to move on by themselves to Marilyn Singer’s poetic Caterpillars (2011) or Laura Marsh’s Caterpillar to Butterfly (2012). - Copyright 2014 Booklist.
