Sunday, October 6, 2013

Book Review: FACE BUG by J. Patrick Lewis




Image Source:
Books in Print (via TWU Databases). Accessed October 4, 2013. http://ezproxy.twu.edu:2125/DetailedView.aspx?hreciid=|40948885|40510203&mc=USA#


Lewis, J. Patrick. Ill. by Kelly Murphy, Photographs by Fred B. Siskind. (2013). Face Bug. Honesdale: Boyds Mills Press.  ISBN 9781590789254

                J. Patrick Lewis delivers a unique poetry collection in the book Face Bug.  All bugs and humans are invited to see the bug museum, where words rhyme and bug face photos give everyone a fright!  The pages are covered with pencil drawings and a huge photograph of the selected bug. Each is accompanied by its corresponding scientific name.  From the eastern carpenter bee, to the praying mantis that graces the book cover, the poems are witty with perfect rhyme.  Some of the vocabulary is advanced, as when the poem describes the “nonchalant” eating habits of the hickory horned devil. Clever use of alliteration is used, as in phrases such as “penny postcards” and “play piggyback.”
                The onomatopoeic word “buzz” is exaggerated to “buzzzzzz” as one insect hits the buzzer to hear about the dogday harvestfly cicada. The reader gets catapulted into the face bug museum and wants to read the book from cover to cover. Some of the verses cascade down the page, as if they were bugs crawling in the museum.
                At the close of the poems, there is a detailed description of the habitat of each insect, what they eat, and who eats them. It is truly a wonderfully conceived poem, as described by Teresa Pfeifer in her School Library Journal review (Books in Print, 2013). Children will delight in the use of Face Bug for story time. Each colorful photograph will startle and provoke many questions. The story time reader can read about each insect from the details provided in the back section and share these details with the children.

References:

Books in Print (via TWU Databases). Accessed October 4, 2013. http://ezproxy.twu.edu:2125/DetailedView.aspx?hreciid=|40948885|40510203&mc=USA#

Lewis, J. Patrick. Ill. by Kelly Murphy, Photographs by Fred B. Siskind. (2013). Face Bug. Honesdale:          Boyds Mills Press. ISBN 9781590789254

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