Synopses & Reviews
Review
Like An Extraordinary Life: The Story of a Monarch Butterfly (Orchard, 1997), this book is carefully researched and extraordinary detailed in text and art. Readers follow one particular green darner, Anax, from his birth ina swamp in New York to mating and death in a Florida pond. Specific incidents in his life are augmented with more general information about dragonflies and damselflies. Sidebars give facts about other creatures that share his habitats. Information on raising dragonfly nymphs for study is appended, and several Web sites are suggested. In Marstall's watercolor-and-oil paintings, soft greens and browns predominate. This is an exemplary nature-study book accurate, explicit, and satisfyingly complete.
The story of one green darner dragonfly named Anax is told as an exciting adventure but is also well researched with sidebars chockfull of scientific details. The complete life cycle is covered, from the mating process to egg-laying in the swamp, on through the nymph stage and the final molt to adulthood. The realities of the food chain are made dear through a discussion of feeding habits, dangers from predators, and the migration pat- terns of various creatures. Lovely illustrations in both oil and watercolors enhance the book. Some are full-color, double-page spreads of the environment; many others are delicate, dose-up drawings of Anax and other dragonflies. Great underwater views of pond life show the relative size and habitat of the many insects mentioned in the story. Chapter headings, a map, and an index assist readers of this long, sometimes technical book. Created by an award winning team of author and illustrator, this impressive book deserves a place in every library and should be useful in science curricula on life cycles in nature. Includes a section on raising dragonflies from the nymph stage and an extensive bibliography and Web site references to encourage further research.
---Library Talk, September/October 2001, starred review