The Tarantula Scientist (Scientists in the Field Series) [Hardcover]

Sy Montgomery (Author), Nic Bishop (Photographer)

Book Description

Age Level: 8 and up | Grade Level: 3 and up | Series: Scientists in the Field Series

Yellow blood, silk of steel, skeletons on the outside! These amazing attributes don’t belong to comic book characters or alien life forms, but to Earth’s biggest and hairiest spiders: tarantulas. Here you are invited to follow Sam Marshall, spider scientist extraordinaire (he’s never been bitten), as he explores the dense rainforest of French Guiana, knocking on the doors of tarantula burrows, trying to get a closer look at these incredible creatures. You’ll also visit the largest comparative spider laboratory in America—where close to five hundred live tarantulas sit in towers of stacked shoeboxes and plastic containers, waiting for their turn to dazzle and astound the scientists who study them.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-10-Superb color photos abound in this spectacular series addition. Readers follow the career of Sam Marshall, tarantula scientist extraordinaire, from his "Spider Lab" at Hiram College in Ohio to the rain forests of French Guiana as he hunts for, finds, and studies the creatures he loves so well. The conversational text contains as much spider lore as scientific investigation and provides a cheerful look at a dedicated scientist. (The fact that he did not do well in school may encourage those late bloomers who have not yet found their passion in life or believe it to be far beyond their academic grasp.) Informative, yes, but even more important, this is a vivid look at an enthusiastic scientist energetically and happily at work, both in the field and in the lab, questioning, examining, testing, and making connections. A treat, even for arachnophobes.
Patricia Manning, formerly at Eastchester Public Library, NY
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Gr. 4-7. Montgomery and Bishop, who worked together on Snake Scientist (1999), team up once again to deliver another fascinating slice of the natural world. This time they venture to the French Guiana rain forest, where they follow arachnologist Sam Marshall on his quest for his favorite quarry: tarantulas. Enthusiasm for the subject and respect for both Marshall and his eight-legged subjects come through on every page of the clear, informative, and even occasionally humorous text. Bishop's full-color photos, which concentrate on detail, not scale, are amazing--Marshall coaxing an elusive tarantula into the open or bringing readers literally face-to-face with a hairy spider. The section on students' research seems tacked on, but it adds an interesting sidelight to the book, which is longer and richer in both text and illustrations than others in the Scientists in the Field series. Readers will come away armed with facts about spiders in general and tarantulas in particular, but even more important, they'll have a clear understanding of how the answers derived from research become the roots of new, intriguing questions. Stephanie Zvirin
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Hardcover: 80 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children (March 23, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0618147993
• ISBN-13: 978-0618147991
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 11.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #227,613 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #99 in Books > Children's Books > Science, Nature & How It Works > Zoology

More About the Author

"Part Emily Dickinson, part Indiana Jones," as the Boston Globe has called her, Sy Montgomery has been chased by an angry silverback gorilla in Zaire and swum with piranhas and pink dolphins in the Amazon. To research her books, films and articles, she has worked in a pit swarming with 18,000 snakes in Canada and been hunted by a tiger in India. She has hiked the Altai Mountains of Mongolia's Gobi desert in search of snow leopards and penetrated the cloud forests of Papua New Guinea to radio collar tree kangaroos. No place is too far to go to bring animals' true stories to adults and children around the world.

Th author of the national bestseller, The Good Good Pig, as well as 15 other celebrated nonfiction books, Montgomery writes for print as well as broadcast in an effort to reach as wide an audience as possible at what she considers a critical turning point in human history. "We are on the cusp of either destroying this sweet, green Earth or revolutionizing the way we understand the rest of animate creation," she says. "It's an important time to be writing about the connections we share with our fellow creatures. It's a great time to be alive."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Are they strong? Listen, bub., February 15, 2005

By 

E. R. Bird "Ramseelbird" (Manhattan, NY) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Tarantula Scientist (Scientists in the Field Series) (Hardcover)

I have no problems with spiders. When an arachnid lodges itself in the upper right hand corner of my shower, it's me (not my hubby) who forces it into an empty glass and releases it back into the wilderness (i.e. out the window). I don't think they're particularly cute, but I respect what they do. Similarly, I didn't think I had any problems with tarantulas either. I'd never held one or stared one in the eight eyes, but I wasn't about to freak out over reading Sy Montgomery's excellent addition to the "Scientists In the Field" series. It was with zero reluctance that I plucked "The Tarantula Scientist" from its shelf and proceeded to page through it. Just my bad luck that such paging began with a stomach churning view of young gooey transparent tail whip scorpions riding on their mother's back, really. To my infinite surprise I found portions of this book grotesque, other parts, disturbing, and every single page can't-physically-tear-my-eyes-away fascinating. For any kid vaguely considering transferring their love of the creepy crawlies into a full time career, this book is a must-have. Just keep a firm grip on your phobias while you peruse it.

Our hero is named Sam Marshall. He's an average college professor (go Hiram!) with a truly above-average obsession. Marshall loves tarantulas. He loves to travel to distant rainforests and observe them in the wild. He loves to tend to his five hundred live spiders in Hiram College's Spider Lab. But most of all, he loves to discover new and interesting things about the species. Tarantulas, as it happens, are relatively mysterious creatures. No one in the scientific community has ever taken the time to understand their growth rates, space needs, ways of creating homes, social obligations, etc. No one until now, that is. With Sam at the your side, the book takes the reader up close and personal with these magnificent lords of the jungle floor. You watch as Sam coaxes a Goliath birdeater tarantula out of its hole. You thrill to see (in graphic color photographs that could win awards for presentation alone) these tarantulas as they shed their furry spiky skins. You cower as Sam navigates a snake ridden cave floor to capture more and more tarantulas for his needs. From the comfort and calm of Ohio to the dangerous but beautiful forests of French Guiana the daring life of an arachnologist has never been so thrillingly portrayed.

This book won the coveted Sibert Honor as one of the best non-fiction books of the year. It's hardly a surprise though. First of all, the pairing of author Sy Montgomery with photographer Nic Bishop is nothing short of inspired. Sy's text makes scientist Sam Marshall come alive for child readers. Through him they learn how one becomes a world premiere tarantula specialist. The book intersperses factual information about the spiders with the actions Sam takes from place to place. Best of all, the book includes a fabulous selected bibliography, spider websites of note, info on French Guiana, and a portion discussing what to do if you're thinking of buying your own personal tarantula. None of this cold hard information keeps Montgomery from placing little moments of reflection in his text as well. A discussion of a hike through the rainforest notes that finding answers to science questions, "means long hikes through a wet, warm rainforest where even the sunlight glows green through the leaves". And the book really shows how scientific discoveries are made. Kids in school might be under the mistaken impression that all facts about the known world are... well... known. But by reading this book we watch and Sam notices something about a spider (it makes a noise, possibly with its legs), tests a theory (by shaving the spider's legs), and reaches a logical conclusion (the noise DOES come from the legs!). What other book does this so well, I dare ask?

And still there are the pictures. Oh the pictures. Bright beautiful full page color pictures that can't help but grab your attention. You see crazy insects, a bag FULL of empties tarantula skins (mesmerizing to say the least), webs, a tarantula flinging spikes at an opponent, and more. My sole regret was that the book goes on for some time about the beauty of a rare bird (whose name Amazon.com won't let me write here, doggone it), but never shows us so much as a glimpse.

All in all, spiders have never been so well documented and presented for the general child reader public. If you're tired of wearing socks all the time and wouldn't mind getting your socks knocked off, here is the place to start. It will scare little kids, entrance older kids, and mildly freak out parents. What more could any good science book do?

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great and Inspiring book for younger readers!, October 10, 2004

By 

E. Fox (Oregon Coast USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Tarantula Scientist (Scientists in the Field Series) (Hardcover)

Even squeemish spider-haters couldn't help but love this book, it's so readable and fun! Arachnologist Sam Marshall leads the author and photographer on a quest that will inspire even the most reluctant young scientist. Journeying through the jungles of French Guiana, we enounter the world's largest spider, the Goliath Birdeater Tarantula. Nic Bishop's photos of the spiders are unexpectedly beautiful (how many eyes does that thing have?); he even managed to capture images of a spider shedding it's skin on a silk mat it wove especially for the occasion. The book has a lot of human interest as well, as readers learn that Marshall was an apathetic student himself, until the joy of discovery through research snared him. (Marshall is considered to be the world's foremost authority on tarantulas, and now is director of a the J.H. Barrow Field Station at Hiram University, where he is also an assistant professor.) One of the neat things about this book, beyond telling us everything about tarantuals, is that it gives us a glimpse what scientific inquiry means in the field and lab. There are photos of young lab students working with their research projects; a grade 5-8 reader would relate and be inspired by this portrayal. This book would be an excellent addition to any middle school library or a great gift for an aspiring biologist or tarantula owner.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More than a picturebook but not quite a pre-teen read, June 12, 2004

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Tarantula Scientist (Scientists in the Field Series) (Hardcover)

Kids in grades 4-6 and more will relish Nic Bishop's startling close-up photos and scientist Sy Montgomery's vivid descriptions of scientific investigations in his Tarantula Scientist. Almost 80 pages pack in the photos and plenty of facts about the giant spiders, and will delight kids of all grade levels with accounts of investigative qualities. More than a picturebook but not quite a pre-teen read, this will reach a larger audience than most simple spider coverages.