Strange Nature, amazing close-up images kids want to see

It takes a special kind of person to oversee a fourth-grade report. In most cases those students are presented with a wide variety of options to choose from and more often than not, they’ll go for the more obscure animals. When I oversee kids doing a report like this I always encourage them to do the research in a book. The way that elementary kids use computers to research things is limited to what they see on the screen. They won’t let their natural curiosity turn the page before they’ve written down an information point that their teacher has asked for. Strange Nature, The Insect Portraits of Levon Biss is the kind of slow boiling, detail-filled book on bizarre insects that most kids will never see, but will know something about.

These are the insects that kids will boast about knowing their names and a fact or two. Think of disgusting, but actual insect facts that they’ll probably never use, but they love to share like trading cards.

The Splendid-Necked Dung Beetle can fly long distances looking for dung.

The Pleasing Fungus Beetle has tiny setae that ooze stink so that other animals stay away.

The Orchid Cuckoo Bee males spit on flowers to claim them, then use their hairy legs to mop up the scent.

See, these facts are fascinating, fun to read and, just like kids do, they’re fun to share with other people. The text is by Gregory Mone with incredibly close-up photographs by Levon Biss. The pages are bigger than usual and the photographs are on pitch-black paper. By doing this, the insect photographs almost pop off of the page and allow young readers to see colors and details that they otherwise wouldn’t be able to.

One of the first things that those young readers will notice is how colorful they are. There are a thousand shades of green, dark yellows, and various iridescent shades of most colors in the rainbow. When you factor in that the photographs are incredibly sharp you’ll be able to see the tiniest bend in their legs and wings, as well as, the impossibly small bumps on their skin.

The text treats those elementary students with respect in educational sentences that most 4^th graders will be able to read without any assistance. Most of the verbal takeaways that kids will have come from the fact block that’s opposite of the images. The insects have three to seven bullet points of information that vary in length. All of the blurbs are informative and some will make kids giggle due to the fact that they’re gross.  

Strange Nature will be at home in any library setting or at home for those creature kids who love the outdoors and the unusual things that are out there. Biss has created a website that shows off some of his photography at Microsculpture. It features images from the Collection of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History and will fuel the imagination of anyone who checks it out.

Strange Nature The Insect Portraits of Levon Biss has text by Gregory Mone with photography by Levon Biss and is available on Abrams Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Abrams Books.

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