The beauty and incredible diversity found among beetles is astonishing as seen in this creeping compendium. Author/illustrator Steve Jenkins offers an array of striking beetle portraits arranged on page spreads that group beetles by a common trait, from the ability of to use “clever disguises” to discourage predators (e.g., ant beetle, golden spider beetle) to the aggressive “battling beetle” tendencies of others when they compete for a mate (e.g., stag beetle, rhinoceros beetle). Almost every two-page spread includes a life-size silhouette of all beetles pictured; those that don’t make clear in the description of each beetle the scale at which it is shown. Jenkins’s striking torn-and-cut-paper collage illustrations are amazingly detailed and accompanied by a brief description that focuses on a few intriguing facts about each beetle, or a trait that is shared by it and many other beetles. A final list gives the Latin/scientific name for each beetle included in the book. (Ages 7–12)

Beetles squeak and beetles glow. Beetles stink, beetles sprint, beetles walk on water. With legs, antennae, horns, beautiful shells, knobs, and other oddities--what's not to like about beetles? The beetle world is vast: one out of every four living things on earth is a beetle. There are over 350,000 different species named so far and scientists suspect there may be as many as a million. From the goliath beetle that weighs one fourth of a pound to the nine inch long titan beetle, award-winning author-illustrator Steve Jenkins presents a fascinating array of these intriguing insects and the many amazing adaptations they have made to survive.