Buzz!

‘Spineless’? ‘No backbone’? Hardly words to describe the world of invertebrates – the most successful animals ever to have lived on our planet.

Buzz starts with a family tree of invertebrates including insects, myriopods (centipedes and millipedes), molluscs (snails), arachnids (spiders, scorpions, and ticks), and crustaceans (woodlice).

Children are then introduced to the real experts, the entomologists and invertebrate specialists. Find out how they do their research, follow them on a search through the jungle, and become an entomologist for a day.

The next section focuses on how creepy crawlies function: What’s inside? Who’s beneath the shell? Who can hear? How they breathe, eat, sleep, move, and much, much more.

A closer look at beetles, butterflies, ants, termites, bees, wasps, flies, and spiders reveals extraordinary behaviour and some amazing stories, including: how the tiny cochineal insect became as valuable as gold and changed politics in renaissance Europe; how a small beetle saved Australia from becoming a massive dung heap; how termites are responsible for our modern-day air conditioning system; how African villages use army ants to perform an annual spring-clean; and many, many more.

The final section presents the vital link between man and invertebrate. From bug recipes from around the world, the production of honey, and their influence on design, to their destruction of crops, their ability to kill, and their removal of waste.

Buzz is an extraordinary book that pushes the boundaries of editorial and design in children’s books. It not only teaches the basics about insects and other invertebrates but brings them into our everyday lives.