Jean Henri Fabre liked to lay on the ground observing ants crawling and digging. I've observed this tendency in my own son. Whether or not he will do what Fabre did remains to be seen. Fabre became a famous French entomologist.
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The Dover translation of Fabre's Book of Insects is just plain fun to read, but is also an excellent book for any nature-loving kid or the kid who might think that bugs are boring.
Sixteen Chapters include:
- the Praying Mantis
- Grubs
- Locusts
- the Anthrax Fly
- and the Glow-worm.
He also includes a chapter on his first lessons in nature watching and why he wished to have his own bare spot for identifying and observing insects.
I love that Fabre's writing shows how he took his passion to a level beyond most people by patience, diligence, and persistence.
- While he describes for us the Sacred Beetle rolling his ball of ground matter, he is also, unconsciously, describing how to observe nature in it's own setting.
- When he writes about the bedroom and tunnel of the Cricket, he is causing us to see what the life of the insect consists of.
- When he describes the queer body and head of Empusa with the "delicate appetites of the invalid," he is building for us a fascinating word picture of the world of entymology.
Get this book and enjoy it with your own budding entomologist!
Robin
Creative Home Learning
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