My son loved it! He kept comparing the bugs and their features and discussing why they are the way they are. He won’t stop talking about them!

I received this arc from NetGalley for an honest review. This non-fiction kids book is about the bugs that we are in serious danger of losing such as the honey bee and the monarch butterfly. Great information and lovely pictures.

The importance of bees in the environment has become an increasing part of the public consciousness in the past couple of years but we don't seem to have grasped that this is true of other insects. And that's where books like this one come in. Kurlansky starts us out with an introduction to bugs: the history, taxonomy, and their role in the environment. Then we are given in-depth information about the role and threat against some specific bugs. It's a tad dry, so best for someone who's already interested in the subject.

Bugs in Danger: Our Vanishing Bees, Butterflies, and Beetles is a children's non fiction book written by Mark Kurlansky and illustrated by Jia Liu. It is currently scheduled for release on November 12 2019.

By now you’ve probably heard that bees are disappearing, and they aren’t the only species at risk. Populations of fireflies, butterflies, and ladybugs have also been declining in recent years. This book explains the growth, spread, and recent declines of each of these four types of insects. It looks at the human causes, like the Baltimore electric company that collected fireflies to attempt to harness their phosphorescent lighting source, to natural occurrences, like the mysterious colony collapse disorder that plagues bee populations. This book makes an effort to show just how much bugs matter to our world.

Bugs in Danger is a well researched, organized, and written nonfiction book. It is fairly dense, to cover all the necessary information, so I would recommend it for middle grade and higher level reader- and adults. I will admit that there were a few moments in the technical explanation about the classifications of life that my eyes and mind wandered a bit. Since this is very early in the book, I worry that some less than dedicated readers might zone out, or maybe just skip ahead. While I have read quite a bit about butterflies and bees, I learned more about those insects and more about critters that I never gave much thought to. There is simply so much information here that I would recommend taking it one section at a time, and I think it would stand up well to multiple revisits. The illustrations are small, and add some visual interest to the read. I found that the text boxes that are scattered through the book also include interesting information and helped break up some of the text. The inclusion of suggestions for what readers can do are doable, I love when authors include the simple things that can help make change, not just the big action. This makes it much more likely that people will make the effort to make some change, and then maybe more as they get comfortable. I liked that the author gave readers a bibliography, that separated out some resources for younger readers and included the most useful website that they know of on the topic.

Bugs in Danger is an extremely informative book about the insects in our world, their importance, and what factors are affecting their decline. I recommend it for readers with interest in the insect world, the environment, and science. It would be an asset to classrooms and libraries.

Kurlansky's book covers the rising problem of the decreasing bee, butterfly, and beetle population. The book is divided into 5 sections: an introduction to the insect world, a section on bees, one on beetles, one on butterflies, and finally a conclusion. The book goes through the history of different species of insects and specifically talks about honeybees, lady bugs, fireflies (which are beetles! something I didn't know), and monarch butterflies. The use of pesticides, collecting insects, and other human involvement (like habitat destruction) are also discussed at length in the book. There is also a huge focus on understanding an ecosystem and how trying to eliminate an unwanted species, like aphids, could be detrimental to another more desired species, like ladybugs.

I learned a lot when reading this book. I was aware of the bee problem, but unaware of the loss of so many other insects. Additionally, I like how the impact of loss of a species is explained in a manner that a middle grade reader can understand. One of the things I love is located in the conclusion where suggestions are made for how the reader can get involved with helping these dwindling species. The book also includes illustrations by Jia Liu which add to the reader's understand and develop a lovely aesthetic for the book. The book is a little direct and to the point and may not pull in all middle grade readers. However, it would be perfect for those interested in science, the environment, or insects. I think this would also make an excellent text for a class focusing on the environment, conservation, or biology in general.

While I enjoyed the content of this book, unfortunately I cannot fathom my middle schoolers eagerly devouring the well-written material. Kurlansky should take a note from his amazingly week-received “A World Without Fish” which flies off the shelves because of the graphics and text elements. “Bugs in Danger” has all the material and content that would appeal to teen readers but lacks the zest necessary to draw them in.

Bugs in Danger is a wonderful fact-filled nonfiction book that is super informative! Readers will learn about the impact of bees, beetles and butterflies on our ecosystem and how their survival (or possible extinction) will impact our climate. This book will appeal to the ‘bug lover’ for sure but every reader, young and old, will learn important information that has implications now and in the future. Much of the information provided in this book is factual yet the writing is interesting and far from boring. This nonfiction book should be added to every library especially as we face the impacts of climate changes in our world today. This book has the ability to prompt reflection, attention and action related to global climate issues.

I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishers in exchange for an hob=nest review.

In this book by Mark Kurlansky, he tackles a topic that is on one hand familiar to young kids yet the information contained between the covers may not be. As an educational tool, it works well but with a few pictures in color, it would have more appeal to kids who are used to playing games on their iPhones. Besides it’s use in the classroom, I can envision a presentation by an entomologist at the local public library.
I received a free book from NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving my review.