Florian, Douglas. 1998. INSECTLOPEDIA. New York: Harcourt, Inc.
ISBN 0-15-201306-7

Florian has composed 21 poems about bugs from ants and dragonflies to beetles and termites. His selected topic is a favorite among elementary school children. He has illustrated each of the poems with a full-page watercolor painting of his own. The accompanying paintings are all colorful and frequently amusing. They are not, however, designed to give the reader an accurate picture of the bug in question.

In addition to the bug theme, the poems are also connected by a sense of whimsy.
For example, the collection begins with a brief rhyming poem entitled "The Caterpillar," which contains the wonderful coined word "Fatterpillar" to describe what happens to caterpillars as they go on their eating spree. It concludes with a succinct description of the last two phases of the animal's life--

Then rents a room inside
A pupa,
And checks out: Madam Butterfly--
How super!

While this poem contains information about the caterpillar’s life cycle and uses the scientific terms, pupa, it is meant to evoke laughter, and it will.
Similarly the poem "The Daddy Longlegs" asks:

How’d you get
Those legs to grow
So very long
And lean in size?
From spiderobic
Exercise?

The word "spiderobic" is enough to make children start to giggle as they envision spiders working out in a gym to the sound of rock music.

All of the poems have a definite rhyme as well as a strong rhythm. Some of them seem to demand that anyone listening to the poem get up and try to move like an insect. For instance, in “The Treehoppers” we read that

They lunge.
They plunge.
They lurch.
The lope.

It is easy to imagine an entire group of children trying to imitate all these motions as they learn these powerful verbs that give a vivid and amusing image of movement.

The words in several of the poems are arranged to give a visual image of the insect. "The Army Ants" starts off with a marching rhythm and a word placement that reinforces the image:

Left
Right
Left
Right

The accompanying painting is covered with a large army of ants marching in formation.
The poem, "The Inchworm," is arranged in a large inverted U. "The Whirligig Beetles," is arranged in a circle, so that it both us with words and placement that the beetles "swim in circles like little toys, without the windup keys or noise." The shape of "The Termites" mirrors the shape of a termite mound.

The last poem in the book is a tribute to "The Mayfly." The poem focuses on the brevity of the mayfly’s life, and the poem is fittingly brief. The poem’s ending seems to serve a double purpose. It bids farewell to the mayfly and to us, the readers.

A day or two
To dance
To fly--
Hello
Hello
Good-bye
Good-bye.

Readers and listeners of all ages will enjoy the poems in this book. However, when reading INSECTLOPEDIA to young children, it would be helpful to have a book of photographs of the actual bugs handy to show the children what animal each poem is describing.

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