Jack's Insects

by Edmund Selous

When Jack receives a book on insects for his birthday, Maggie wishes one could get "into" a book. And so they do, experiencing adventures with insects of all sorts as they "travel" through the book. Along the way they encounter a butterfly with a grievance, extraordinary caterpillars, a hungry spider, a distinguished musician (a katydid), as well as fireflies, locusts, grasshoppers, wasps, bees, and more. The author, Edmund Selous, a lifelong observer of wildlife, produced books about animals for both children and adults. In his books for children, Selous conveys an amazing amount of information about animals through the conversations his youthful protagonists have with the animals they encounter. Each animal is brought to life so vividly through the story that the reader unconsciously absorbs the details of its its physical characteristics, its habits and preferences, and its interactions with other animals.

Genres: Science, Unfinished

292 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1910

About the author

Edmund Selous was a British ornithologist and writer. He was the younger brother of big-game hunter Frederick Selous. Born in London, the son of a wealthy stockbroker, Selous was educated privately and matriculated at Pembroke College, Cambridge in September 1877. He left without a degree and was admitted to the Middle Temple just over a year later and was called to the bar in 1881. He practised as a barrister only briefly before retiring to pursue the study of natural history and literature.

Reviews

[Willow · Rating 1 out of 5]

Today I officially declared this book stricken from our school schedule and banished. We have been working terribly hard on getting through this book, and, despite a cheerful beginning, and the determination to be positive even when we found it tedious, our morale has flagged to the point of utter dread of this book.

In the first place, every single insect we come across in this story has the same personality: conceited, imperious, easily offended, long-winded, and generally irritating. It is so difficult to find out anything about any given insect because we get bogged down by his self-important speeches full of silly exaggerated jargon. The children in the story are constantly commenting on his speeches by interjecting, "Really, Mr. Cicada?" and repeatedly begin to ask a question only to get cut off while the bug launches into yet another extended tirade. "But Mr. Grasshopper, what--" "But Mr. Dead-Leaf Mantis, aren't you--" and so on.

The insects persist in insulting either the children or other insects they deem inferior to themselves. Their attitudes are so haughty and condescending that we found them thoroughly repulsive. We read with furrowed brows and there *may* have been some snorts of disgust.

The chapters were SO VERY long. We would read and read, "growing dull and stupid" over our lesson (as CM would say), thinking we've GOT to be near the end of this chapter by now, only to flip some pages...and some more...and find that we still had ELEVEN pages of close-typed monotony to go for today's reading assignment! This nearly resulted in tears (and that's just on my part!). There were absolutely NO good breaks in any chapter that would indicate a suitable stopping point; the dialogue just kept going on and on. We were spending exorbitant amounts of time on this book several days a week, which ate into our other lessons, and left us exhausted and depleted just in time to try to finish up our other subjects for the day. If we left it for last (and we often did), we were already exhausted by the dread of it, and there were days (and days) that it just got hacked right out of the schedule because the day had been full enough without it.

I did my very best; I really gave it my all: I did varied voices for the characters, I read with expression, we broke up the chapters over two, even three days. We took a complete week off from it here and there and studied a totally different science topic for a break. We read other insect books to supplement Jack's Insects. We used the narration and nature notebook alongside it. We followed the suggested reading plan. Then we tweaked the reading plan. Then we abandoned the reading plan and just plain tried to get through a few pages at a time.

My children could hardly narrate and couldn't figure out anything of value about any of these insects; basically, the general consensus when asked to tell all they could remember about an insect consisted of blank stares and "He was snooty and self-centered and got offended all the time." Ummm, considering we were supposed to be learning actual characteristics of actual bugs through this story, I'd say, for us, it has been a dreadful failure. The ONLY chapter that has afforded us real information we could assimilate was the one we just finished, which was about the development of the cicada, and that was Chapter 12!

I finally gave myself permission to drop it and move on to something that will be more beneficial for us.

[Jennifer Taylor · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hard to understand at points. The sentences are long and rambling and found it hard to keep my attention.

[Ash · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF at 55%

[Katja Labonté · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars & 4/10 hearts. This is an enjoyable read, even if written for a young audience. It isn’t very “talking-down-to-children” in style, and it has some very amusing parts. It is a book I have always enjoyed and still do.

A Favourite Humorous Quote: “‘...every country into which we have penetrated can bear witness to how well we have fought for our rights.’
“‘But what are your rights, [...] Mr. Plague Locust?’ said Jack.
“‘Why, to eat and lay our eggs, to be sure,” answered the Plague Locust. “That is all we lay claim to, and after all, is it much? Yet it is in the endeavour to satisfy these two simple wants that we have met with such fierce opposition. It is strange.’
“‘I don’t know about its being very strange, Mr. Plague Locust,” said Jack.”

[Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

My son and I have not laughed this hard since... I really cant recall!
"Oh the Indignity" a Butterfly retorts indignantly, and "I am NOT a maggot!".
Book was devoured by my ten year old, on his own. A treasure!

[Naomi · Rating 4 out of 5]

The chapters on caterpillar mimicry and the cicadas were our favorites.

[Susanna]

grade 4-6 living science book

[Carrie Rushoway · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful book to open childrens ( and adults) minds to the world of insects.

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you want educational nature books for kids, I recommend instead the Thornton Burgess books.