Customer Reviews

Bugs of Northern California

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I just got this guide last month. It has bright attractive illustrations and was an immediate hit with my kids and me. We didn't know much to start with, but this guide has a picture index in the front that makes it easy to find the mystery bug. For us, it helps that we don't need to know taxonomy. Because it is region specific, we don't have to waste a lot of time wading through all the bugs we're unlikely to see anyway--I assume this is something like the "top 100" of local bugs, so just about everything I see in the book looks familiar. I also like that the book provides a little narrative about each bug, not just its name, so we feel like we're really learning something. I suspect it's not big enough for all the bugs we'll come across, but so far it is serving us well by wetting our appetite.

This book is far from comprehensive for this geographical area and has NO photos. It seems written by a high schooler and uses alot of editorial comments to make up for lack of facts. I think we used to call it padding. I was hoping for a Peterson-type guide. I returned the book. Nice cover.

This book is educational, well written and interesting. It provides plenty of information without being wordy or boring. The illustrations are excellent, but photographs would be a nice bonus.

Like most Lone Pine publications, this one is a hit. It's just *fun* and fascinating to read. Part of me would like to see some range maps, and with 20,000 bug species in CA, this book clearly represents a small subset of what you might see. However, in less than 200 pages the author crams an amazing amount of "gee whiz" information. The illustrations of insects discussed are of an unusually high quality (bravo Ian Sheldon).

Excellent illustrations, my kids love it. Would like a bit more in-depth info, but then again, that might make the book a lot bigger...love it!