Customer Reviews

The Life and Times of the Ant

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Life and Time of the Ant is a cartoon type book all about ants. We learn lots of neat things about the ant family. We leaned how they communicate, about the parts of an ant's body, and all about the various kids of any in the world. One section of the book is about hoe important the ant is in the Rain Forest. We are told that ants eat insect pests, plant gardens in trees, removing decaying animals from the forest floor, and thin out plants that over crowd the forest.

The pictures are drawn in a cartoon like style. They were neat to look at while reading.

This would make a great read aloud for elementry classroom during a science unit on ants. Lots of great information is presented in a kid friendly way.

I homeschool my 2nd grade son and we just learned about insects and spiders. This book was PERFECT for learning about ants. Excellent pictures and information about how they live and the different varieties. I even learned a few things I didnt know!

My son is not an insect person. But I looked at this book and found it very funny and very clever. The worker ants wear construction helmets, the queen wears a tiara, you get the idea. I brought it home from the library with a bunch of other books on sea life and outer space, my son's usual topics. After initially rejecting the Ant book, he picked it up and then couldn't put it down. We ended up buying it. He loves it. He takes it in the car and is now full of all kinds of fun facts about ants. He has even become interested in bees and other insects as a result. Who knew. Just goes to show you that a funny and clever presentation can get a kid interested in just about anything.

The illustrations and format of "The Life and Times of the Ant" signal that it is a book for children, so I was a little worried about how my 13 year old grandson would react to it as a gift. On the other hand, I could tell him that as a Biologist, I was delighted with the book and learned a lot from it--or at least I was reminded of many things that had become hazy since my student days. He does like the book.

I think the text is simplified, and the vocabulary is controlled to accommodate younger readers, but in my opinion that turns out to be a plus for an adult reader who just wants to enjoy knowing more about the natural world. The writing does not proffer childish attitudes toward nature or an attempt to make things "cute." Though engaging, it does not insult the intelligence and seriousness of either adults or children.

This was an excellent book to accompany the Giant Ant Farm we got our granddaughter for Christmas.

This is a wonderfully illustrated book with great facts about the life and habits of the ants. I highly recommend it for children of reading age who are interested in learning all about insects.

Daughter used this for her 5th grade Science project... studied an ant farm. The book was quite helpful and fun to read as an adult!

May 19, 2011

My daughter, who is about to finish second grade, was hysterical when she saw the crawling ant on the kitchen floor. I was really getting worried because she had real tears crawling down her pink cheeks. She instructed me to "Kill it!" "Kill it!", repeatedly.

She didn't want to be anywhere near an ant. We left the house in a hurry and I took her to the Webster Public Library. There, we looked up a book on ants. We found a very good one, "The Life and Times of the Ant" by Charles Micucci. In this book, we learned the difference between male ants and female ants. Male ants have wings and can fly. Almost all ants we've ever seen turned out to be girls. My daughter was intrigued by this fact. What else is there to learn about ants? We learned that an ant's stomach appears to be in its butt...she burst out a laughter. Then we learned how clean ants are; because they constantly clean themselves. We learned that ants can hear from their legs! We learned that ants socialize like humans, and get to know each other by touch. "Just like Hellen Keller!" My daughter chimed.

We left the library to buy an ant farm. So we went to the Hobby Lobby store, and bought Uncle Milton's Ant Farm. In the car, my daughter opens the box.

"Dad..."

"Yes, sweet heart?"

"Can you please buy me ants?"

Of course I got on her case for first telling me to kill an ant, and now she wants me to buy one! I said, No. Would you like to go home and find some ants? She yelled, YES!

This is a very informative book that even my 2 year old loves to look at.
It is a book that makes learning fun!

This book has sufficient information about ants written in a way that a child of 5 or older can understand and appreciate. My 7 year and I both enjoyed reading it together.